VERB
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force to go away; used both with concrete and metaphoric meanings
drive away bad thoughts
The supermarket had to turn back many disappointed customers
dispel doubts
Drive away potential burglars - decide (a contest or competition) by a runoff
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leave suddenly and as if in a hurry
The listeners bolted when he discussed his strange ideas
When she started to tell silly stories, I ran out -
run off as waste
The water wastes back into the ocean -
run away secretly with one's beloved
The young couple eloped and got married in Las Vegas - reproduce by xerography
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run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along
The thief made off with our silver
the accountant absconded with the cash from the safe
How To Use run off In A Sentence
- A witness reported seeing a masked man climb out and run off. Times, Sunday Times
- She knew the kidnap was a fake because she was supposed to run off with the kid and the money. Bitter Gold Hearts
- I'm trying to run off some of my excess fat!
- He could have lost it completely and run off screaming into the night, with no one at all on his tail.
- I saw one group of traders run off like a startled herd, humping their bags of bags, while three police, like a pack of hunting dogs, scragged the least nimble.
- Their suffering is generally caused by adults: a parent has died, or run off, or otherwise acted irresponsibly, drunkenly, selfishly, dissolutely.
- Forest Goblin shamans are prone to run off dizzily, or just blunder about, unable to distinguish fact from venom-induced fiction.
- Careful studies of silt prove beyond doubt that its primal cause is the removal of the forest cover, such as underbrush, weeds, and grasses, along the streams, which allows the rainfall to run off rapidly. McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, July 1908.
- We are planning to overlay the site with a second layer of road tar, featuring a camber to encourage water to run off.
- Now, uncle, don't mistify the subject, don't run off from it after shadows, trying to convince us that they are collateral points of the great issue, as I heard a young lawyer once say. Nellie Norton: Or, Southern Slavery and the Bible. A Scriptural Refutation of the Principal Arguments upon which the Abolitionists Rely. A Vindication of Southern Slavery from the Old and New Testaments.
