Word.ws English Dictionary

ran across

ran across is the simple past of run across.

Meaning of run across

Verb

run across (third-person singular simple present runs across, present participle running across, simple past ran across, past participle run across)

  1. To cross by running.
    • The police ran across the bridge to catch the criminal.
  2. (idiomatic) To find or discover by chance; to come across.
    • While I was cleaning the kitchen cupboards, I ran across Mother's recipe for Cornish game hens.
    Synonyms:
    encounter

Questions about ran across

What is ran across the simple past of?
Ran across is the simple past of run across.

Words near ran across in the dictionary

  1. ran a risk
  2. ran a temperature
  3. ran a train
  4. ran about
  5. ran about with
  6. ran across
  7. ran adrift
  8. ran afoul of
  9. ran after
  10. ran against
  11. ran aground

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ran across (page history and authors); run across (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: “ran across.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ran_across. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.