Definition of "run around"

run around

verb
third-person singular simple present runs around, present participle running around, simple past ran around, past participle run around
1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see run,‎ around.
2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be very busy doing many different things.
3. (idiomatic, intransitive) To go from place to place.
  Quotations
  “A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. […]”
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
4. (rail transport, of a locomotive) To move from one end of the consist to the other, so as to pull the train in the opposite direction.
5. (slang) To cheat; to be unfaithful to a romantic partner.
6. (tennis, of a forehand or a backhand) To change one's position on the court to hit a forehand rather than a backhand, or vice versa.
  Quotations
  He'd gotten into tremendous shape so that he could run around his backhand and avoid hitting it altogether. He even tried a left-handed forehand. That was how desperate he was.
  2006, Greg Moran, Tennis Beyond Big Shots, page 71
noun
plural run arounds
1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see run,‎ around.
2. Alternative form of runaround.
  Quotations
  Natrum sulp. is my specific for inflammations of the matrix of the nails or " run arounds."
  1893, The New England Medical Gazette - Volume 28, page 183
  The sketch shows the arrangement of run arounds for bringing the loaded trips into the bottom and for returning the empties to the proper quarter of the mine.
  1914, Mine and Quarry - Volumes 8-11, page 1176
  The Committee contends : First, that the turn of Brakeuien W. R. Tighe and W. F. Haworth was run around at Baird by the crews of Conductors Schwartz, Russell, Hubbard, and Whaley and thereby lost 200 miles, or four 50-mile run arounds.
  1937, United States. National Railroad Adjustment Board, Awards: first division. 1- - Volume 7, page 504

Definition of "run around"

run around

verb

Quotations

Quotations

noun

Quotations