run around

present singular third person runs around · participle present running around · past ran around

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo be very busy doing many different things.

   I don't want to run around all week getting everything ready for the holidays.

2. idiomaticintransitiveTo go from place to place.

   “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, →OCLC

3. rail transportTo move from one end of the consist to the other, so as to pull the train in the opposite direction.
4. slangTo cheat; to be unfaithful to a romantic partner.
5. hobbiesTo change one's position on the court to hit a forehand rather than a backhand, or vice versa.

   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, →ISBN, page 71

6. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see run, around.

   The children ran around in the playground.

   Synonyms: run about

plural run arounds

1. alternativeAlternative form of runaround.

   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

   2 more examples

   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

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see run, around.

   We let the dog off the lead so it could have a run around.