Word.ws English Dictionary

runs late

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

Meaning of run late

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To be late; to fail to be on time.
    • When the clocks are put forward at the introduction of summer time, the long-distance night trains automatically become one hour late, and continue to run late for the remainder of their journeys. […] Similarly, when the clocks are put back in the autumn, the night trains become one hour early.1951 June, “The Why and the Wherefore: Railways and Summer Time”, in Railway Magazine, page 429

Questions about runs late

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

Words near runs late in the dictionary

  1. runs into
  2. runs into a brick wall
  3. runs into one
  4. runs into the ground
  5. runs it up
  6. runs late
  7. runs like a dry creek
  8. runs like a top
  9. runs lines
  10. runs low
  11. runs mad

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: runs late (page history and authors); run late (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:

Cite this entry: “runs late.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/runs_late. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.