Word.ws English Dictionary

runs around

runs around is the third-person singular simple present indicative of run around.

Meaning of run around

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be very busy doing many different things.
    • I don't want to run around all week getting everything ready for the holidays.
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To go from place to place.
    • “A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing.[…]”1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
  3. To move from one end of the consist to the other, so as to pull the train in the opposite direction.
  4. (slang) To cheat; to be unfaithful to a romantic partner.
  5. To change one's position on the court to hit a forehand rather than a backhand, or vice versa.
    • He'd gotten into tremendous shape so that he could run around his backhand and avoid hitting it altogether. He even tried a left-handed forehand. That was how desperate he was.2006, Greg Moran, Tennis Beyond Big Shots, →ISBN, page 71
  6. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see run, around.
    • The children ran around in the playground.
    Synonyms:
    run about

See all 7 meanings of run around

Questions about runs around

What is runs around the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Runs around is the third-person singular simple present indicative of run around.

Words near runs around in the dictionary

  1. runs amok
  2. runs amuck
  3. runs an errand
  4. runs and guns
  5. runs and repeats
  6. runs around
  7. runs around after
  8. runs around like a chicken with its head cut off
  9. runs around with
  10. runs around with one's hair on fire
  11. runs at

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: runs around (page history and authors); run around (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: “runs around.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/runs_around. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.