Word.ws English Dictionary

run for the exercise

run for the exercise verb: to run for political office with little chance of success.

Verb

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

  1. (US, colloquial, simile) To run for political office with little chance of success.
    • [I]f Rockefeller wanted to run for the exercise, [Democrats] reasoned, let him kill himself off and clear the way for a more regular Republican in the next election.1959, Candidates 1960 "xxx", Nelson. A Rockefeller, page 53
    • BENTSEN: SAYS HE WON'T RUN "FOR THE EXERCISE"
      "Asked about the 1992 presidential race, Bentsen said he would not run as a sacrificial lamb so that the [Dems] would have a credible candidate and avoid a humiliating defeat"1991, The Hotline, volume 4, numbers 127-148, page 3
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see run, exercise.

Forms of run for the exercise

third-person singular presentruns for the exercise
present participlerunning for the exercise
pastran for the exercise
past participlerun for the exercise

Origin of run for the exercise

A pun on two senses of run: to run for election and to travel quickly on foot.

Questions about run for the exercise

What does run for the exercise mean?
Run for the exercise means to run for political office with little chance of success.
What part of speech is run for the exercise?
Run for the exercise is a verb.
What is the past tense of run for the exercise?
The past tense of run for the exercise is ran for the exercise.

Words near run for the exercise in the dictionary

  1. run feasts
  2. run for cover
  3. run for it
  4. run for one's life
  5. run for one's money
  6. run for the exercise
  7. run for the hills
  8. run for the money
  9. run for the roses
  10. run from the tongue
  11. run game

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: run for the exercise (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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