Word.ws English Dictionary

runs in the family

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

Meaning of run in the family

Verb

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

  1. (derogatory, idiomatic, mildly, sometimes) To be a characteristic feature that is observed in several generations of a family.
    • We could never understand why any man should choose the career of a chainsmith, except, possibly, for the reason that it ran in the family, for a more arduous and unpleasant manner of earning one's living could scarcely be imagined, unless it was the business of moulding permanent-way chairs in an...1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, pages 13–14

Questions about runs in the family

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

Words near runs in the family in the dictionary

  1. runs hands
  2. runs high
  3. runs hot
  4. runs hot and cold
  5. runs in
  6. runs in the family
  7. runs in with
  8. runs interference
  9. runs into
  10. runs into a brick wall
  11. runs into one

Source and license

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