run away

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

1. To flee by running.

   The crowd had to run away from the burning structure with only the clothes on their backs.

   1 more example

   Sometimes I feel I've got to / Run away / I've got to / Get away from the pain you drive into the heart of me

   1965, Ed Cobb, “Tainted Love”, in Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, performed by Soft Cell, published 1981

2. To leave home, or other place of residence, usually unannounced, or to make good on a threat, with such action usually performed by a child or juvenile.

   My parents want me to take a bath every day? Fine, I'm running away.

   4 more examples

   "I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal. I never did that.[…]."

   1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC

   I decided to move out of the house when I was 24; my mother still refers to this as the time I ran away from home.

   1974, Rhoda (opening credit scene), spoken by Rhoda Morgenstern

   Look, kid... it's getting kind of late. It'll be dark soon. Maybe running away today isn't such a good idea.

   2005 September 17, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic)

   Weeks before Amy disappeared, she had written in her journal about a man named ‘Hank’, who had asked her to run away with him to South America.

   2026 July 29, Nicholas Muhoro, “Amy Billig Vanished While Hitchhiking Through Coconut Grove. Then the Calls Began”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2026

3. To become a runaway. (of a device or vehicle)

   The train's brakes failed and it ran away.

   2 more examples

   An autotrim failure can cause stabiliser trim to rapidly run away in the nose-up or nose-down direction.

   The complete 1892 rebuilding, indeed, followed an accident in 1890, when No. 6 ran away down the Buckley branch, and got badly smashed up in a collision at Connah's Quay.

   1944 May and June, “Notes and News: A Much Transformed Locomotive”, in Railway Magazine, page 186