Word.ws English Dictionary

hit and run

hit and run noun: the crime of causing a traffic collision, and leaving without acknowledging responsibility.

Noun

hit and run (countable and uncountable, plural hit and runs)

  1. The crime of causing a traffic collision, and leaving without acknowledging responsibility.
    • But why don't you grab your old lady by the feet / And just lay her out in the darkest street / And by morning, she's just another hit and run1978, Lou Reed, “Street Hassle”, in Street Hassle
  2. A play where the baserunners leave their base before the batter hits the ball, assuming that the batter will in fact hit the ball and this will give them an advantage.
  3. The tactic of attacking one place and then quickly moving to another before defenders can react.
    • It used it as a launching pad of its hit and run attacks against Yugoslavia with the full—though clandestine—support of the Bulgarian Ministry of War and Fascist Italy.2002, Samuel Vaknin, Terrorists and Freedom Fighters
    • In the city centre far from the stadium, what the mayor, Femke Halsema, has described as violent “hit and run” attacks on Israeli supporters by groups of local people took place.2024 November 16, Dave Rich, “The violence in Amsterdam showed just how polarising – and radicalising – the Middle East conflict has been”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  4. (idiomatic, slang) Sexual intercourse followed by a prompt departure; a one-night stand.

Verb

hit and run (third-person singular simple present hits and runs, present participle hitting and running, simple past hit and ran, past participle hit and run)

  1. (informal) To hit something or someone with a vehicle and leave the scene of the incident.
    Synonyms:
    hit-skip
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive, slang) To engage in sexual intercourse followed by a prompt departure; to engage in a one-night stand.
    • You can't hit and run / I've got to be number one / Better make up your mind / 'Cause you'll never find a love so divine1977, Loleatta Holloway, “Hit and Run”, in Loleatta (1977 album)
  3. To join a poker game, quickly win several hands, then leave.
  4. Synonym of pick and pass.
    Synonyms:
    pick and pass
  5. (Internet, slang) To download through peer-to-peer file sharing protocols (e.g., BitTorrent) without seeding.
  6. To leave the base before the batter hits the ball.
    • This manager, in keeping with all other famous managers, believed that batting was the thing which won games. He developed a hard-hitting team. He kept everlastingly at them to hit and run, hit and run.1920, Zane Grey, “The Manager of Madden's Hill”, in The Redheaded Outfield

hit and run meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malay and Indonesian

hit and run in Tamil

மோதி விரைதல்

hit and run in Urdu

مارا اور بھاگا

hit and run in Malay

the crime of causing an accident and leaving
langgar lari

hit and run in Indonesian

the crime of causing an accident and leaving
tabrak lari
More languagesFewer languages
hit and run in Thai
ชนแล้วหนี
hit and run in Vietnamese
đánh và chạy, đánh rồi rút, tấn công và chạy

Synonyms of hit and run

Forms of hit and run

Noun
pluralhit and runs
alternative formhit-and-run
Verb
third-person singular presenthits and runs
present participlehitting and running
pasthit and ran
past participlehit and run

Words formed from hit and run

Words that rhyme with hit and run

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hit and run

What does hit and run mean?
Hit and run means the crime of causing a traffic collision, and leaving without acknowledging responsibility.
What is hit and run in Tamil?
Hit and run in Tamil is மோதி விரைதல். See Hit and run meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is hit and run?
Hit and run can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of hit and run?
The plural of hit and run is hit and runs.

Words near hit and run in the dictionary

  1. hit a wall
  2. hit above one's weight
  3. hit and giggle
  4. hit and hope
  5. hit and ran
  6. hit and run
  7. hit and runs
  8. hit away
  9. hit back
  10. hit batsman
  11. hit batsmen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hit and run (page history and authors); hit and run (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hit and run (Urdu Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-hit and run.wav.

Cite this entry: “hit and run.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hit_and_run. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.