Definition of "run down"

run down

verb
third-person singular simple present runs down, present participle running down, simple past ran down, past participle run down
1. (transitive) To hit someone with a car or other vehicle and injure or kill them.
2. (transitive) To criticize someone or an organisation, often unfairly.
  Quotations
  Ha! ha! ha! 'tis very hard for them to leave a subject they have not quite run down.
  1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, I.i
3. (transitive) To find something or someone after searching for a long time.
4. (transitive, intransitive) To lose power slowly. Used for a machine, battery, or other powered device.
5. (transitive) To read quickly a list or other short text.
6. (transitive) To describe in the form of a rundown, a rough outline or summary.
  Quotations
  When the minute was up, John Jay managed to make the woman twice as nervous as he ran down the rules and the possibilities.
  2013, Nora Roberts, The Name of the Game
7. (Britain, transitive) To reduce the size or stock levels of a business, often with a view to closure.
  Quotations
  Social media has been full of strident criticism of a Government perceived as pursuing a conscious policy to run down - even destroy - our railway.
  2022 November 30, Nigel Harris, “A bid to break the other side?”, in RAIL, number 971, page 3
8. To decline in quality or condition.
  Quotations
  TravelWatch SouthWest Chairman Chris Irwin said: "This is intolerable. The South West deserves levelling up, not running down. SWR and its sponsors in the Department of Transport must be called to account."
  2022 January 26, Paul Clifton, “"Intolerable" service cuts under emergency COVID timetables”, in RAIL, number 949, page 8
9. (hunting) To chase till the object pursued is captured or exhausted.
10. (nautical, transitive) To run against and sink, as a vessel.
  Quotations
  The Jylland only missed running down a schooner by a few yards in the fog; it was a near thing—near enough, in fact, to allow of some shouted remarks between those on the bridge of the motorship and the man at the wheel of the schooner to be clearly heard.
  1943 May and June, Chas. S. Lake, “Some Continental Travel Experiences (1922-1939)—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 143
  Hiei now loomed into the action, causing the leading U.S. destroyers to scatter before the oncoming behemoth lest they be run down.
  2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 14:35 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN)‎, archived from the original on 17 October 2022
11. (transitive) To crush; to overthrow; to overbear.
  Quotations
  Religion is […] run down by the prevailing licence of these times.
  1736, George Berkeley, A Discourse addressed to Magistrates and Men of Authority

Definition of "run down"

run down

verb

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