run up

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

1. To run (towards someone or something); to hasten to a destination.

   The dog ran up under the table to get his food.

   1 more example

   As I was walking along the road, a man suddenly ran up to me.

2. To approach (an event or point in time).

   We are putting on lots of special attractions as we run up to Christmas.

3. transitiveTo take to a destination or before an authority.

   […] and I took him along and ran him up to police headquarters.

   1924, Michigan. Supreme Court, Michigan Reports, volume 226, page 46

4. datedTo erect hastily, as a building.

   we wait until the palace is half-way up, and then we pay some tasty architect to run us up an ornamental mud hovel, right against it

   1840 February, Edgar Allan Poe, “Peter Pendulum, the Business Man”, in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, volume 6, number 2, page 87

   Synonyms: throw up, knock up, knock together, slap together

5. idiomatictransitiveTo make something, usually an item of clothing, very quickly.

   I'll run you up a skirt for tomorrow evening.

6. idiomatictransitiveTo bring (a flag) to the top of its flag pole.

   Stand quietly while the honor guard runs the flag up.

7. transitiveTo string up; to hang.
8. ball gamesOf a bowler, to run, or walk up to the bowling crease in order to bowl a ball.

   He runs up... and bowls. Smashed away for four runs!

9. intransitivetransitiveTo rise; to swell; to grow; to increase.

   Accounts of goods credited run up very fast.

   2 more examples

   But these, having been untrimmed for many years, had run up into great bushes, or rather dwarf trees.

   1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC

   Google Glitch May Run Up Phone Bills [title]

   2009 February 6, Roy Furchgott, “Google Glitch May Run Up Phone Bills”, in New York Times

10. idiomaticTo accumulate (a debt).

    He ran up over $5,000 in unpaid bills.

11. To thrust up, as anything long and slender.

    The fence runs up along the edge of the pasture.

12. transitiveaeronauticsTo warm up and test an airplane before a flight.
13. reflexiveslangsometimesAfrican-American VernacularTo accumulate money, drugs, etc.

    I run me up some big bills.

14. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see run, up.

    The small boy ran up the hill.

plural run ups

1. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of run-up.