Word.ws English Dictionary

run the show

run the show verb: to be the leader, to be in charge.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To be the leader, to be in charge.
    • "Far's I can see. Young Alf's made up his mind to learn the dentist business, and the old folks are backin' him; so I don't see but I've got to stop on and run the show. Father's gettin' up in years now."1904, Sara Jeannette Duncan, The Imperialist
    • In any viable scenario of renationalisation, the idea was always to ensure that the railways were at arm's length from the Department, since it was recognised that allowing civil servants to run the show is always a bad idea.2020 June 3, Christian Wolmar, “Unworkable policies cripple our beleagered railway”, in Rail, page 51

run the show meaning in Bengali and Malayalam

run the show in Bengali

নেতা হওয়া, দায়িত্বে থাকা

run the show in Malayalam

be in control, be in charge, be at the helm
മേധാവിത്വം വഹിക്കുക, നടത്തുക, മേൽനോട്ടത്തിന് അധികാരമുണ്ടായിരിക്കുക, ചുമതലയുണ്ടായിരിക്കുക, ചുമതലക്കാരനായിരിക്കുക, ഭരിക്കുക

Forms of run the show

third-person singular presentruns the show
present participlerunning the show
pastran the show
past participlerun the show

Questions about run the show

What does run the show mean?
Run the show means to be the leader, to be in charge.
What is run the show in Bengali?
Run the show in Bengali is নেতা হওয়া, দায়িত্বে থাকা. See Run the show meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is run the show?
Run the show is a verb.
What is the past tense of run the show?
The past tense of run the show is ran the show.

Words near run the show in the dictionary

  1. run the gauntlet
  2. run the gauntlope
  3. run the guard
  4. run the risk
  5. run the rule over
  6. run the show
  7. run the table
  8. run the whole show
  9. run thin
  10. run through
  11. run through the garden

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: run the show (page history and authors); run the show (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); run the show (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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 the show.ogg.

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