Word.ws English Dictionary

making a run for it

making a run for it is the present participle and gerund of make a run for it.

Meaning of make a run for it

Verb

make a run for it (third-person singular simple present makes a run for it, present participle making a run for it, simple past and past participle made a run for it)

  1. (idiomatic) To attempt to escape; to flee; to run away.
    • An explosion! All’s over—I have nothing to do but to make a run for it.1824, George Soane, Pride Shall Have a Fall: A Comedy, London: Hurst, Robinson & Co., act 4, scene 2, page 79
  2. (idiomatic) To run so as to avoid being late.
    • [...] he began to go over in his mind the many occasions on which he had heard that toll coming faintly down the breeze, and had to pack his rod in a hurry and make a run for it, to get in before the gates were shut.1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days, Part 2, Chapter 6

Questions about making a run for it

What is making a run for it the present participle and gerund of?
Making a run for it is the present participle and gerund of make a run for it.

Words near making a run for it in the dictionary

  1. making a pig's ear of
  2. making a pile
  3. making a play
  4. making a point
  5. making a production out of
  6. making a run for it
  7. making a scene
  8. making a show of oneself
  9. making a silk purse of a sow's ear
  10. making a spectacle of oneself
  11. making a splash

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: making a run for it (page history and authors); make a run for it (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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Cite this entry: “making a run for it.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/making_a_run_for_it. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.