Word.ws English Dictionary

makes the running

makes the running is the third-person singular simple present indicative of make the running.

Meaning of make the running

Verb

make the running (third-person singular simple present makes the running, present participle making the running, simple past and past participle made the running)

  1. (UK, idiomatic) To have a leading or influential position in a field or activity; to be more active than others.
    • He added: "In this period if you looked at the western world and asked who is making the running, from the point of view of modern society and particularly in terms of liberty, it would be Britain and we forget that. Britain is absolutely the model of the future."2014 April 7, Mark Brown, “Royal art show, The First Georgians, to open at Buckingham Palace”, in The Guardian
    Synonyms:
    set the pace

Questions about makes the running

What is makes the running the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Makes the running is the third-person singular simple present indicative of make the running.

Words near makes the running in the dictionary

  1. makes the headlines
  2. makes the news
  3. makes the passes
  4. makes the perfect the enemy of the good
  5. makes the rounds
  6. makes the running
  7. makes the weather
  8. makes the welkin ring
  9. makes the world go around
  10. makes the wrong turn at Albuquerque
  11. makes things interesting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: makes the running (page history and authors); make the running (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:

Cite this entry: “makes the running.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/makes_the_running. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.