Lexic.us

Definition of Run down

1. Verb. Trace. "We are running down a few tips"

2. Verb. Move downward. "The water ran down"

3. Verb. Injure or kill by running over, as with a vehicle.

4. Verb. Use up all one's strength and energy and stop working. "At the end of the march, I pooped out"

5. Verb. Examine hastily. "She scanned the newspaper headlines while waiting for the taxi"

6. Verb. Deplete. "They run down the money "; "We quickly played out our strength"

7. Verb. Pursue until captured. "They ran down the fugitive"

Definition of Run down

1. Verb. (transitive) To hit someone with a car or other vehicle and injure or kill them. ¹

2. Verb. (transitive) To criticize someone or an organisation, often unfairly. ¹

3. Verb. (transitive) To find something or someone after searching for a long time. ¹

4. Verb. (transitive intransitive) To lose power slowly. Used for a machine, battery, or other powered device. ¹

5. Verb. (transitive) To read quickly a list or other short text. ¹

6. Verb. (British transitive) To reduce the size or stock levels of a business, often with a view to closure. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Run Down

run around after run around like a chicken with its head cut off run around with run away run away with run back run bases run batted in run book run by

run chase run chases run circles around run circles round run counter run down (current term) run down the clock run dry run for run for it

run for office run for one's money run for the hills run for the roses run hot and cold run in run in the family run interference run into run into the ground

Literary usage of Run down

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. St. Nicholas by Mary Mapes Dodge (1886)
"THE GIRLS' TRICYCLE CLUB AND ITS run down THE CAPE. BY E. VINTON BLAKE. TRICYCLES had become an every-day affair in ..."

2. United States Supreme Court Reports by Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, United States Supreme Court (1882)
"... for the source of the main stream, still the line must run down that lowest water course to the south fork, and down the south fork to the old line. ..."

3. Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature by H.W. Wilson Company (1916)
"Am Econ R 5:805-15 D '15 Building up the run-down farm. OR Geyer. Country Life 29:16.) Ap '16 Land tenure reform and democracy. G: E. Putnam. ..."

4. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General by Thomas Spencer Baynes (1888)
"... had a considerable declivity, a ship which had taken the ground on the beach near low water mark was actually run down and damaged by another stranded ..."

5. The Edinburgh Review by Sydney Smith (1869)
"the former run down the stem; the top is pale grey, which becomes darker as the plants get older. Mrs. Hussey reports well of the oyster-fungus, ..."

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