Meanings
plural outrunners
- An offshoot; a branch.
some out-runner of the river, where the streams run not strongly
1620, William Lauson, "Comments on The Secrets of Angling", 2nd edition, in Edward Arber (editor), An English Garner, 18771 more example
It is flanked on its east side by metamorphic Cretaceous limestone, which also forms the northern outrunner of this spur.
1891, Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Texas - Volume 2, page 681 - A person or animal who accompanies a vehicle or procession but who is not seated in the vehicle or part of the procession.
The outrunner of the Khedevial carriage comes along and the man on the box is silent, perhaps two outrunners speed ahead of the prancing horses clearing the way for the royal cortege.
1909, The Expositor and Current Anecdotes, Volume 11, page 2552 more examples
Mail, guns and luggage aboard, and ourselves perched in the only seat of honor and comfort, that with the driver, we tore away through a long avenue lined with native shops, an outrunner hanging on for dear life to the more obstrepersous horse for the first quarter of a mile.
1889, James Ricalton, “Buffalo-Hunting in Ceylon”, in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, volume 28, page 712It is supported by an outrunner trotting abreast, and retained by two as slender ropes, while a strap attaching his apology for a bridle to that of his neighbour hinders him from running at an angle of more than 45° to the line of progression.
1897 January, J. Y. Simpson, “The Great Siberian Iron Road”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 161, page 12 - One who outruns.
Such as in a game of backgammon one can be outrun, and other times one can be the outrunner, so are the brave-hearted riders, who roam the hunting ground sometimes apprehended, and other times become apprehenders themselves.
2016, Tudor Salagean, Transylvania in the Second Half of the Thirteenth Century: The Rise of the Congregational System, page 71
Cite this entry
outrunner. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/outrunner
“outrunner.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/outrunner. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “outrunner,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/outrunner.
Source: outrunner on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.