The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Run \Run\ (r[u^]n), v. i. [imp. Ran (r[a^]n) or Run; p. p.
Run; p. pr. & vb. n. Running.] [OE. rinnen, rennen (imp.
ran, p. p. runnen, ronnen). AS. rinnan to flow (imp. ran, p.
p. gerunnen), and iernan, irnan, to run (imp. orn, arn, earn,
p. p. urnen); akin to D. runnen, rennen, OS. & OHG. rinnan,
G. rinnen, rennen, Icel. renna, rinna, Sw. rinna, r[aum]nna,
Dan. rinde, rende, Goth. rinnan, and perh. to L. oriri to
rise, Gr. 'orny`nai to stir up, rouse, Skr. [.r] (cf.
Origin), or perh. to L. rivus brook (cf. Rival).
[root]11. Cf. Ember, a., Rennet.]
1. To move, proceed, advance, pass, go, come, etc., swiftly,
smoothly, or with quick action; -- said of things animate
or inanimate. Hence, to flow, glide, or roll onward, as a
stream, a snake, a wagon, etc.; to move by quicker action
than in walking, as a person, a horse, a dog.
Specifically:
[1913 Webster]
2. Of voluntary or personal action:
(a) To go swiftly; to pass at a swift pace; to hasten.
[1913 Webster]
"Ha, ha, the fox!" and after him they ran.
--Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
(b) To flee, as from fear or danger.
[1913 Webster]
As from a bear a man would run for life. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
(c) To steal off; to depart secretly.
[1913 Webster]
(d) To contend in a race; hence, to enter into a contest;
to become a candidate; as, to run for Congress.
[1913 Webster]
Know ye not that they which run in a race run
all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that
ye may obtain. --1 Cor. ix.
24.
[1913 Webster]
(e) To pass from one state or condition to another; to
come into a certain condition; -- often with in or
into; as, to run into evil practices; to run in debt.
[1913 Webster]
Have I not cause to rave and beat my breast, to
rend my heart with grief and run distracted?
--Addison.
[1913 Webster]
(f) To exert continuous activity; to proceed; as, to run
through life; to run in a circle.
(g) To pass or go quickly in thought or conversation; as,
to run from one subject to another.
[1913 Webster]
Virgil, in his first Georgic, has run into a set
of precepts foreign to his subject. --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
(h) To discuss; to continue to think or speak about
something; -- with on.
(i) To make numerous drafts or demands for payment, as
upon a bank; -- with on.
(j) To creep, as serpents.
[1913 Webster]
3. Of involuntary motion:
(a) To flow, as a liquid; to ascend or descend; to course;
as, rivers run to the sea; sap runs up in the spring;
her blood ran cold.
(b) To proceed along a surface; to extend; to spread.
[1913 Webster]
The fire ran along upon the ground. --Ex. ix.
23.
[1913 Webster]
(c) To become fluid; to melt; to fuse.
[1913 Webster]
As wax dissolves, as ice begins to run.
--Addison.
[1913 Webster]
Sussex iron ores run freely in the fire.
--Woodward.
[1913 Webster]
(d) To turn, as a wheel; to revolve on an axis or pivot;
as, a wheel runs swiftly round.
(e) To travel; to make progress; to be moved by mechanical
means; to go; as, the steamboat runs regularly to
Albany; the train runs to Chicago.
(f) To extend; to reach; as, the road runs from
Philadelphia to New York; the memory of man runneth
not to the contrary.
[1913 Webster]
She saw with joy the line immortal run,
Each sire impressed, and glaring in his son.
--Pope.
[1913 Webster]
(g) To go back and forth from place to place; to ply; as,
the stage runs between the hotel and the station.
(h) To make progress; to proceed; to pass.
[1913 Webster]
As fast as our time runs, we should be very glad
in most part of our lives that it ran much
faster. --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
(i) To continue in operation; to be kept in action or
motion; as, this engine runs night and day; the mill
runs six days in the week.
[1913 Webster]
When we desire anything, our minds run wholly on
the good circumstances of it; when it is
obtained, our minds run wholly on the bad ones.
--Swift.
[1913 Webster]
(j) To have a course or direction; as, a line runs east
and west.
[1913 Webster]
Where the generally allowed practice runs
counter to it. --Locke.
[1913 Webster]
Little is the wisdom, where the flight
So runs against all reason. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
(k) To be in form thus, as a combination of words.
[1913 Webster]
The king's ordinary style runneth, "Our
sovereign lord the king." --Bp.
Sanderson.
[1913 Webster]
(l) To be popularly known; to be generally received.
[1913 Webster]
Men gave them their own names, by which they run
a great while in Rome. --Sir W.
Temple.
[1913 Webster]
Neither was he ignorant what report ran of
himself. --Knolles.
[1913 Webster]
(m) To have growth or development; as, boys and girls run
up rapidly.
[1913 Webster]
If the richness of the ground cause turnips to
run to leaves. --Mortimer.
[1913 Webster]
(n) To tend, as to an effect or consequence; to incline.
[1913 Webster]
A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds.
--Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
Temperate climates run into moderate
governments. --Swift.
[1913 Webster]
(o) To spread and blend together; to unite; as, colors run
in washing.
[1913 Webster]
In the middle of a rainbow the colors are . . .
distinguished, but near the borders they run
into one another. --I. Watts.
[1913 Webster]
(p) To have a legal course; to be attached; to continue in
force, effect, or operation; to follow; to go in
company; as, certain covenants run with the land.
[1913 Webster]
Customs run only upon our goods imported or
exported, and that but once for all; whereas
interest runs as well upon our ships as goods,
and must be yearly paid. --Sir J.
Child.
[1913 Webster]
(q) To continue without falling due; to hold good; as, a
note has thirty days to run.
(r) To discharge pus or other matter; as, an ulcer runs.
(s) To be played on the stage a number of successive days
or nights; as, the piece ran for six months.
(t) (Naut.) To sail before the wind, in distinction from
reaching or sailing closehauled; -- said of vessels.
[1913 Webster]
4. Specifically, of a horse: To move rapidly in a gait in
which each leg acts in turn as a propeller and a
supporter, and in which for an instant all the limbs are
gathered in the air under the body. --Stillman (The Horse
in Motion).
[1913 Webster]
5. (Athletics) To move rapidly by springing steps so that
there is an instant in each step when neither foot touches
the ground; -- so distinguished from walking in athletic
competition.
[1913 Webster]
As things run, according to the usual order, conditions,
quality, etc.; on the average; without selection or
specification.
To let run (Naut.), to allow to pass or move freely; to
slacken or loosen.
To run after, to pursue or follow; to search for; to
endeavor to find or obtain; as, to run after similes.
--Locke.
To run away, to flee; to escape; to elope; to run without
control or guidance.
To run away with.
(a) To convey away hurriedly; to accompany in escape or
elopement.
(b) To drag rapidly and with violence; as, a horse runs
away with a carriage.
To run down.
(a) To cease to work or operate on account of the
exhaustion of the motive power; -- said of clocks,
watches, etc.
(b) To decline in condition; as, to run down in health.
To run down a coast, to sail along it.
To run for an office, to stand as a candidate for an
office.
To run in or To run into.
(a) To enter; to step in.
(b) To come in collision with.
To run into To meet, by chance; as, I ran into my brother
at the grocery store.
To run in trust, to run in debt; to get credit. [Obs.]
To run in with.
(a) To close; to comply; to agree with. [R.] --T. Baker.
(b) (Naut.) To make toward; to near; to sail close to; as,
to run in with the land.
To run mad, To run mad after or To run mad on. See
under Mad.
To run on.
(a) To be continued; as, their accounts had run on for a
year or two without a settlement.
(b) To talk incessantly.
(c) To continue a course.
(d) To press with jokes or ridicule; to abuse with
sarcasm; to bear hard on.
(e) (Print.) To be continued in the same lines, without
making a break or beginning a new paragraph.
To run out.
(a) To come to an end; to expire; as, the lease runs out
at Michaelmas.
(b) To extend; to spread. "Insectile animals . . . run all
out into legs." --Hammond.
(c) To expatiate; as, to run out into beautiful
digressions.
(d) To be wasted or exhausted; to become poor; to become
extinct; as, an estate managed without economy will
soon run out.
[1913 Webster]
And had her stock been less, no doubt
She must have long ago run out. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
To run over.
(a) To overflow; as, a cup runs over, or the liquor runs
over.
(b) To go over, examine, or rehearse cursorily.
(c) To ride or drive over; as, to run over a child.
To run riot, to go to excess.
To run through.
(a) To go through hastily; as to run through a book.
(b) To spend wastefully; as, to run through an estate.
To run to seed, to expend or exhaust vitality in producing
seed, as a plant; figuratively and colloquially, to cease
growing; to lose vital force, as the body or mind.
To run up, to rise; to swell; to grow; to increase; as,
accounts of goods credited run up very fast.
[1913 Webster]
But these, having been untrimmed for many years, had
run up into great bushes, or rather dwarf trees.
--Sir W.
Scott.
[1913 Webster]
To run with.
(a) To be drenched with, so that streams flow; as, the
streets ran with blood.
(b) To flow while charged with some foreign substance.
"Its rivers ran with gold." --J. H. Newman.
[1913 Webster]