outrun, v.
(aʊtˈrʌn)
[out- 14, 18, 17.]
1. intr. To run out. † b. Of time: To expire.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 5297 Þe croun of thornes þat was thrested On his heved fast, þat þe blode out rane. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love iii. i. (Skeat) l. 51 Too moche wolde out ren. 1550 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 108 The xx{supt}{supy} dayis..being outrunin. 1617 Sir W. Mure Misc. Poems xxi. 71 Long may thy subjects, ere thy glasse outrunne, Enjoy the light of thee, their glorious Sunne. 1819 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 135 (E.D.D.) Hurryin' frae their doors Out-ran in thousands to the Scores. |
2. trans. To outdo or outstrip in running, to run faster or farther than; to leave behind by superior speed; hence, to escape or elude.
| 1526 Tindale John xx. 4 They ranne bothe to gether and that other disciple dyd out runne Peter and cam fyrst to the sepulcre. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iv. i. 176 If these men haue defeated the Law, and outrunne Natiue punishment. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 36 To pierce the mountain-wolf with feather'd dart;..Out-run the wind-out-running dædale hare. 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4887/3 We chased them till Ten..they out-running us so very much, that [etc.]. 1858 Sears Athan. ii. ii. 188 John outruns the sturdy Peter. |
b. fig. To outstrip or get ahead of in any course.
| 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, i. ii. 14 By giuing the House of Lancaster leaue to breathe, It will outrunne you, Father, in the end. a 1656 Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 39 Our forward young men out-run their years. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. (1869) I. i. xi. iii. 233 The increase of stock and the improvement of land are two events..of which the one can nowhere much out-run the other. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. viii. II. 347 The zeal of the flocks outran that of the pastors. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 232 The power of analysis had outrun the means of knowledge. |
3. fig. To run beyond a fixed limit or point; to go beyond in action.
| 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. xi. iii. §14 Those who formerly had outrunne the canons with their additional conformitie. 1665 Glanvill Scepsis Sci. ix. 51 They must needs transcend, and outrun our faculties. a 1797 H. Walpole Mem. Geo. II (1847) III. i. 6 In general, his friends outran his intentions. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe iii, Silence, maiden; thy tongue outruns thy discretion. 1873 J. A. Symonds Grk. Poets i. 10 The poet's imagination had probably outrun the fact. |
† 4. To run through; to pass or spend (time); to wear out (clothes, etc.). Obs.
| 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vii. ix. 240 Ethelrik..hauing out-run his youth in pernicious obscuritie, attained in his old yeeres to the Gouernment of both the Prouinces. 1687 London Gaz. No. 2276/5 The Spahi's having out-run all their Equipage, would not be in a condition of Service. |
5. to outrun the constable: see constable 6.
Hence outˈrunner1, one who outruns.
| 1885 J. C. Jeaffreson Real Shelley II. 257 The young man..like most other outrunners of the constable, was often without money. |