RUN

I. verb (ran; also chiefly dialect ~; ~; ~ning) Etymology: Middle English ronnen, alteration of rinnen, verbi. (from Old English iernan, rinnan & Old Norse rinna) & of rennen, verbt., from Old Norse renna; akin to Old High German rinnan, verbi., to ~, Sanskrit riṇāti he causes to flow, and probably to Latin rivus stream Date: before 12th century intransitive verb 1. to go faster than a walk, to move at a fast gallop, flee , retreat , escape , to utilize a ~ning play on offense, 2. to go without restraint ; move freely about at will , to keep company ; consort , to sail before the wind in distinction from reaching or sailing close-hauled, roam , rove , 3. to go rapidly or hurriedly ; hasten , to go in urgency or distress ; resort , to make a quick, easy, or casual trip or visit , 4. to contend in a race, to enter into an election contest , 5. to move on or as if on wheels ; glide , to roll forward rapidly or freely, to pass or slide freely , to ravel lengthwise , to sing or play a musical passage quickly , 7. to go back and forth ; ply , to migrate or move in considerable numbers, 8. turn , rotate , function , operate , 9. a. to continue in force, operation, or production , to have a specified duration, extent, or length , to accompany as a valid obligation or right , to continue to accrue or become payable , to pass from one state to another , 11. to flow rapidly or under pressure, melt , fuse , spread , dissolve , to discharge liquid (as pus or serum) , 12. to develop rapidly in some specific direction, to tend to produce or develop a specified quality or feature , 13. to lie in or take a certain direction , to lie or extend in relation to something, to go back ; reach , d. to be in a certain form or expression , to be in a certain order of succession, 14. to occur persistently , b. to remain of a specified size, amount, character, or quality , to have or maintain a relative position or condition (as in a race) , to exist or occur in a continuous range of variation , 15. to spread or pass quickly from point to point , to be current ; circulate , transitive verb 1. to cause (an animal) to go rapidly ; ride or drive fast, to bring to a specified condition by or as if by ~ning , to go in pursuit of ; hunt , chase , to follow the trail of backward ; trace , to enter, register, or enroll as a contestant in a race, to put forward as a candidate for office, to carry (the football) on a ~ning play, 2. to drive (livestock) especially to a grazing place, to provide pasturage for (livestock), to keep or maintain (livestock) on or as if on pasturage, 3. a. to pass over or traverse with speed, to ~ on or over in athletic competition , to accomplish or perform by or as if by ~ning , to slip or go through or past , to travel on (as a river) in a boat , 4. to cause to penetrate or enter ; thrust , stitch , to cause to pass ; lead , to cause to collide , smuggle , to cause to pass lightly or quickly over, along, or into something , 6. to cause or allow (as a vehicle or a vessel) to go in a specified manner or direction , operate , to direct the business or activities of ; manage , conduct , to employ or supervise in espionage , 7. to be full of or drenched with , contain , assay , 8. to cause to move or flow in a specified way or into a specified position , to cause to produce a flow (as of water) , 9. to melt and cast in a mold , treat , process , refine , to make oneself liable to ; incur , to mark out ; draw , 12. to permit (as charges) to accumulate before settling , cost 1 , 13. to produce by or as if by printing, to carry in a printed medium ; print , 14. to make (a series of counts) without a miss , to lead winning cards of (a suit) successively, to alter by addition , to make (a golf ball) roll forward after alighting, Usage: The past tense ~ still survives in speech in southern England and in the speech especially of older people in some parts of the United States It was formerly used in literature, and was a standard variant in our dictionaries from 1828 until 1934. Grammarians have generally opposed it, and many people consider it nonstandard. Just about everybody uses ran in writing now. II. noun Date: 14th century 1. an act or the action of ~ning ; continued rapid movement, a quickened gallop, a migration of fish (as up or down a river) especially to spawn, a ~ning race , a score made in baseball by a ~ner reaching home plate safely, strength or ability to ~, a gain of a usually specified distance made on a ~ning play in football , a sustained usually aggressive effort (as to win or obtain something) , 2. creek 2, something that flows in the course of an operation or during a particular time , 3. the stern of the underwater body of a ship from where it begins to curve or slope upward and inward, the direction in which a vein of ore lies, a direction of secondary or minor cleavage ; grain , a horizontal distance (as that covered by a flight of steps), general tendency or direction, a continuous period or series especially of things of identical or similar sort , a rapid passage up or down a scale in vocal or instrumental music, a number of rapid small dance steps executed in even tempo, the act of making successively a number of successful shots or strokes, an unbroken course of performances or showings , a set of consecutive measurements, readings, or observations, persistent and heavy demands from depositors, creditors, or customers , sequence 2b, the quantity of work turned out in a continuous operation , the usual or normal kind, character, type, or group , 7. the distance covered in a period of continuous traveling or sailing, a course or trip especially if mapped out and traveled with regularity, a news reporter's regular territory ; beat , freedom of movement in or access to a place or area , 8. the period during which a machine or plant is in continuous operation, the use of machinery for a single set of processing procedures , 9. a way, track, or path frequented by animals, an enclosure for domestic animals where they may feed or exercise, c. Australian a large area of land used for grazing , ranch , station , an inclined passageway, 10. an inclined course (as for skiing or bobsledding), a support (as a track, pipe, or trough) on which something ~s, 11. a ravel in a knitted fabric (as in hosiery) caused by the breaking of stitches, a paint defect caused by excessive flow, diarrhea , ~less adjective III. adjective Date: 1774 1. being in a melted state , made from molten material ; cast in a mold , having made a migration or spawning ~ , exhausted or winded from ~ning