Word.ws English Dictionary

ran short

ran short is the simple past of run short.

Meaning of run short

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To have used up or consumed the majority (of something), so that little remains.
    • How much ice cream is left? Are we running short?
  2. To be nearly used up or consumed.
    • Patience is running short.

Questions about ran short

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

Words near ran short in the dictionary

  1. ran rampant
  2. ran rings around
  3. ran riot
  4. ran roughshod over
  5. ran scared
  6. ran short
  7. ran someone off their feet
  8. ran someone ragged
  9. ran someone's file
  10. ran something up the flagpole
  11. ran the clock down

Source and license

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