Word.ws English Dictionary

ran down the clock

ran down the clock is the simple past of run down the clock.

Meaning of run down the clock

Verb

run down the clock (third-person singular simple present runs down the clock, present participle running down the clock, simple past ran down the clock, past participle run down the clock)

  1. (idiomatic) To waste time at the end of a match such that it is terminated by running out of time, or during a match so a time penalty is made less severe.
    • Energetic Malouda was denied twice by Jussi Jaaskelainen late on before Ancelotti ran down the clock by introducing Salomon Kalou and Paulo Ferreira in the closing seconds as Chelsea arrested their slide.2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC

Questions about ran down the clock

What is ran down the clock the simple past of?
Ran down the clock is the simple past of run down the clock.

Words near ran down the clock in the dictionary

  1. ran by
  2. ran circles around
  3. ran counter
  4. ran deep
  5. ran down
  6. ran down the clock
  7. ran dry
  8. ran errands
  9. ran for cover
  10. ran for it
  11. ran for one's life

Source and license

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