Word.ws English Dictionary

give someone the runaround

give someone the runaround verb: to delay, dodge, or frustrate (someone), especially by providing useless information or directions.

Verb

give someone the runaround (third-person singular simple present gives someone the runaround, present participle giving someone the runaround, simple past gave someone the runaround, past participle given someone the runaround)

  1. (idiomatic) To delay, dodge, or frustrate (someone), especially by providing useless information or directions.
    • Deitch decided seven years ago that she wanted to film a lesbian love story. When major producers gave her the run-around, she formed her own production company, hustled for backers and gathered the right crew of technicians and actors to make it happen.1986 April 19, Loie Hayes, Donna Deitch, “Leapin' Lesbians!”, in Gay Community News, page 8

Forms of give someone the runaround

third-person singular presentgives someone the runaround
present participlegiving someone the runaround
pastgave someone the runaround
past participlegiven someone the runaround

Questions about give someone the runaround

What does give someone the runaround mean?
Give someone the runaround means to delay, dodge, or frustrate (someone), especially by providing useless information or directions.
What part of speech is give someone the runaround?
Give someone the runaround is a verb.
What is the past tense of give someone the runaround?
The past tense of give someone the runaround is gave someone the runaround.

Words near give someone the runaround in the dictionary

  1. give someone the gears
  2. give someone the heave-ho
  3. give someone the lie in their throat
  4. give someone the mitten
  5. give someone the old heave-ho
  6. give someone the runaround
  7. give someone the rush act
  8. give someone the shits
  9. give someone the slip
  10. give someone the time
  11. give someone their cards

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: give someone the runaround (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-give someone the runaround.ogg.

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