Word.ws English Dictionary

run scared

run scared verb: to be in a state of fearful alarm.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be in a state of fearful alarm.
    • The campaign is in crisis mode: they are running scared and it is becoming obvious.
    • You came to me when I was lonely / And no one cared / You made me see that I was only / Just running scared1981 June, William King, Harold Hudson, Shirley Hanna-King, “Lady (You Bring Me Up)” (track 1), in In the Pocket, performed by Commodores

Forms of run scared

third-person singular presentruns scared
present participlerunning scared
pastran scared
past participlerun scared

Questions about run scared

What does run scared mean?
Run scared means to be in a state of fearful alarm.
What part of speech is run scared?
Run scared is a verb.
What is the past tense of run scared?
The past tense of run scared is ran scared.

Words near run scared in the dictionary

  1. run rings around
  2. run rings round
  3. run riot
  4. run roughshod over
  5. run round in circles
  6. run scared
  7. run sheep run
  8. run sheet
  9. run sheets
  10. run short
  11. run someone off their feet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: run scared (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-run scared.ogg.

Cite this entry: “run scared.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/run_scared. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.