Word.ws English Dictionary

lose the run of oneself

lose the run of oneself verb: to get carried away; lose one's self-control; exceed one's limits or limitations.

Verb

lose the run of oneself (third-person singular simple present loses the run of oneself, present participle losing the run of oneself, simple past and past participle lost the run of oneself)

  1. (Ireland, colloquial, figuratively) To get carried away; lose one's self-control; exceed one's limits or limitations.
    • Belief in a high incidence of mental illness, as well as beliefs in high rates of alcoholism and suicide, may be metaphors for a culturally understandable and excusable `losing the run' of oneself.1986 Winter, Eileen Kane, "Stereotypes and Irish Identity: Mental Illness as a Cultural Frame", Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review Vol.75 No.300 p.549
    • I think we have gone over the top on this, that we are losing the run of ourselves [...] and that it would be nice to see a little bit of common sense in the debate for a change.1993 December 16, Seán Power, “Interpretation (Amendment) Bill, 1993 [ Seanad ]: Second Stage.”, in Dáil debates

Forms of lose the run of oneself

third-person singular presentloses the run of oneself
present participlelosing the run of oneself
past participlelost the run of oneself
pastlost the run of oneself

Questions about lose the run of oneself

What does lose the run of oneself mean?
Lose the run of oneself means to get carried away; lose one's self-control; exceed one's limits or limitations.
What part of speech is lose the run of oneself?
Lose the run of oneself is a verb.
What is the past tense of lose the run of oneself?
The past tense of lose the run of oneself is lost the run of oneself.

Words near lose the run of oneself in the dictionary

  1. lose the bubble
  2. lose the dressing room
  3. lose the fang
  4. lose the number of one's mess
  5. lose the plot
  6. lose the run of oneself
  7. lose the thread
  8. lose their head
  9. lose time
  10. lose to plot
  11. lose touch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lose the run of oneself (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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