run into

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

1. literallyintransitive but with prepositional objectTo enter by running.

   He ran into the building.

   1 more example

   Here we were nearly 8 min. early, and was now a matter of spinning out time, as indeed we did—losing 3 min. from Penrith to Carlisle!—in order not to run into Carlisle more than 5 min. early.

   1957 August 28, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 568

2. intransitive but with prepositional objectTo collide with.

   He lost control of the vehicle and ran into a tree.

   2 more examples

   I've sustained some front-end damage after running into a pothole.

   A "passenger/goods" cock is provided in each cab, by which, when placed in the "goods" position, the normal proportional brake application is slowed down. This is for use when hauling an unbraked or partially braked train, and prevents the unbraked stock from running into the locomotive or braked portion of the train with violence.

   1958 September 28, “Swindon's First Main-Line Diesel Locomotive”, in Railway Magazine, page 603

3. transitive and with prepositional objectTo cause to collide with.

   He lost control of the vehicle and ran it into a tree.

4. broadlyintransitive but with prepositional objectTo unexpectedly encounter or meet someone or something (literally or figuratively).

   I ran into your cousin the other day.

   3 more examples

   Everything was going according to plan until we ran into the legal problems.

   Japan's revolutionary New Tokaido Line, the 310-mile, 150 m.p.h. route between Tokyo and Osaka that is due to open for passenger traffic in October, has run into the same kind of budgetary trouble that held up our own LMR electrification, though the Japanese Government, unlike our own, has apparently gritted its teeth and allowed the project to go ahead to planned completion.

   1964 July, “Tokaido line trouble”, in Modern Railways, page 52

   Her sister had just turned 18 and recently moved back home after weeks of staying with a friend, and it seemed reasonable that she had run into friends and probably lost track of time.

   2026 August 6, Nicholas Muhoro, “An Ohio Teen Vanished During a One-Mile Drive in 1994. Her Locked Car Was Found Hours Later”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2026

5. datedintransitive but with prepositional objectTo reach, to flow into (a body of water).

   1849, Charles Anthon, A System of Ancient and Mediæval Geography, for the Use of Schools and Colleges, Harper & Brothers, Publishers (1871), page 58, Œāso, on the coast, at the northern extremity of the Pyrenees, where the River Magrăda, now Urumea, runs into the sea.

6. intransitive but with prepositional objectTo blend into; to be followed by or adjacent to without there being a clear boundary.

   1 more example

   2003, Julie M. Crandall and Mary Helen Brown, "The Millennium Waltz: A Story in Three-Quarter Time", Chapter 18 in Robin Patric Clair (ed.), Expressions of Ethnography: Novel Approaches to Qualitative Methods, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 189, Of course, a show might start at a certain time, and one must place bets at the sports book at the right time, but for the most part, day runs into night and night runs into day without notice or comment.

7. transitive and with prepositional objectTo cause to blend into.

   You can use the paintbrush this way to run the colors into each other.

8. To reach a large figure.

   By the end, the cost of the project ran into the millions of dollars.

9. transitiveTo amount to.

   debts running into millions