outrun

Etymology

It is formed from English out- + run,^[1][3][4][5] and in Middle English it was outrennen, from out and rennen (“to run”).^[6][7][3] For the oldest sense, "to run out, flow out", the OED compares the phrasal verb run out and similar compounds in the other Germanic languages: Middle Dutch uterinnen, Middle High German ūzrinnen (now German ausrinnen), Old Swedish utrinna (now Swedish utrinna), Danish udrinde and Old Frisian ūtrenna.^[1] The noun was formed in the same way from the noun run,^[1] after the phrasal verb run out;^[6] in skiing it follows German Auslauf.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

To run out or flow out: the OED's first example is from the Old English medical text known as Bald's Leechbook.^[1] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this intransitive sense to before the 12th century,^[6] and Etymonline finds Middle English outrennen, "to flow out, to issue forth", in the early 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first senses were intransitive.^[1][3] Besides "to flow out", the verb meant, chiefly in Scotland, for a period of time to run its course or for a lease or contract to expire, from Lydgate's Troy Book (about 1425) to 1658;^[1][3] the Scottish sense "to run out, expire" was still listed in Wright's English Dialect Dictionary.^[8] The transitive sense now usual, to run faster or further than someone and so leave them behind or escape them, is recorded from about 1460, in a manuscript of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde;^[1] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century.^[3] Figurative uses followed: to get ahead of someone (1575, Gascoigne) and to go beyond a fixed limit (1589).^[1] Etymonline dates figurative use to the 1650s.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to leave behind in running" and quoted Macbeth: "The expedition of my violent love / Outruns the pauser reason."^[9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records the sense of growing faster than something else, as when spending outruns income.^[6] The old intransitive sense survives only in poetry and is rare.^[1][6] The noun came much later, first in 1801 for an outcome, a rare sense; in Scotland and Australia it was an outlying piece of grazing land (1870), and it was also the outward run of a sheepdog sent to gather sheep (1884) and, in skiing, the level stretch at the foot of a run (1913).^[1]

Timeline

• Old English – intransitive, to run out, flow out (now poetic and rare).^[1]
• c. 1425 – of a period of time, to come to an end; of a lease, to expire (chiefly Scottish, obsolete by 1658).^[1]
• c. 1460 – transitive, to run faster or further than; to escape by running.^[1] Etymonline dates this sense to the mid-15th century.^[3]
• 1575 – figurative, to outstrip or get ahead of someone.^[1]
• 1589 – to go beyond a limit; to exceed.^[1]
• 1592 – to run to the end of; to exhaust, use up (obsolete by 1687).^[1]
• 1801 – noun, an outcome or result (rare).^[1]
• 1870 – noun, outlying grazing land on a farm (chiefly Scottish and Australian).^[1]
• 1884 – noun, the outward run of a sheepdog to gather sheep.^[1][6]
• 1913 – noun, in skiing, the level stretch at the foot of a run or jump.^[1][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To run faster or further than; to leave behind by running: The fox easily outran the hounds.^[10][6][1]
2. To get away from by running, or as if by running; to escape: She could not outrun the rumours.^[10][6]
3. To go beyond; to exceed, or to grow faster than: Demand has outrun supply.^[10][6][1]
4. (archaic) To run out or flow out.^[6][1]
5. outrun the constable: to go too far or overstep the bounds of moderation; to overspend and get into debt.^[4][1]

Noun

1. The outward run of a sheepdog sent to gather sheep.^[6][1]
2. An outlying piece of grazing land on a farm or station (chiefly Scottish and Australian).^[6][1]
3. In skiing, the level area at the foot of a run or jump where a skier comes to a stop.^[6][1]

Related words

• run
• outrunner

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins