run-up
Also run up, runup.
[f. run v.]
1. The act of running up to a certain point; esp. a. Coursing. The race between two greyhounds up to the first turn or wrench of the hare.
| 1834 Thacker Courser's Comp. I. 134 One dog is sometimes behind the other in the first run up to the hare. 1853 ‘Stonehenge’ Greyhound 358 The first cote constitutes what is sometimes called the run up, or speed to the hare. 1884 Field 6 Dec. (Cassell's), Pious Fraud scored the run-up from Alone. |
b. The act of taking or sending a ball up to the goal or into a position for final play. Also attrib. Chiefly in Golf.
| 1897 Outing XXX. 484/1 Foster.., after a clean run from 'way down the field, puts the ball through the uprights... The excitement of the run-up has been intense. 1901 Scotsman 9 Sept. 4/7 Vardon, after being short in his run up, missed the hole for a 3. 1907 ‘I. Hay’ Pip iii. xi. 339 Anything in the shape of a run-up ball would be trapped. 1931 Daily Express 31 Jan. 9/5 Compston, playing a run-up shot to the first green, shouted after the ball, ‘Hit the stick.’ 1955 Times 2 May 4/1 On most of Friday he putted well, and his run-ups were often in the highest class. 1963 Times 14 Jan. 3/7 Agate won back the 13th, where he played a run-up to the hole. |
c. A run made in preparation for jumping, throwing, etc., in Athletics; in Cricket, the bowler's approach to the bowling crease before delivery.
| 1897 Encycl. Sport I. 52/2 Pace in the run-up supplies the impetus; spring enables the jumper to lift himself into the air. 1919 F. A. M. Webster et al. Success in Athletics x. 83 The last stride must be a short one, so that the jumping leg may be gathered well under the body for the spring. This accounts for the run-up, which must be most assiduously practised. 1929 G. M. Butler Mod. Athletics ix. 120 The run-up. The first essential of successful long jumping is speed in the approach. Ibid. 122 Should the run-up be inaccurate, there will be a loss of at least a foot. 1948 K. S. Duncan Oxf. Pkt. Bk. Athletic Training iv. 62 Practise and standardize the run-up, cross step and throwing stance. 1959 Times 17 June 6/6 Horner, with his upright stance and utter immobility during the bowler's run-up. Ibid. 24 Aug. 4/2 She was handicapped..in the long jump by a crumbling run-up. 1966 B. Johnston Armchair Cricket 1966 97 If the batsmen attempt to steal a run during the bowler's run-up [etc.]. 1974 Rules of Game 18/3 The parallel lines may be crossed during run-up, but the competitor must be between them when the javelin is released. 1977 J. Laker One-Day Cricket 48 The length of a bowler's run-up is limited to 15 yards. |
d. = run-in 3.
| 1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 27 June 8 Another Stirling and a Wellington adopted almost identically the same run-up as ourselves. 1958 ‘N. Shute’ Rainbow & Rose ii. 43, I went up again and circled round... ‘I'm going to do a dummy run.’.. I took a longer run-up this time. 1976 ‘G. Black’ Moon for Killers vii. 99 A small, single-prop job was coming in for a landing..its turn completed, the run-up going to be towards us. |
e. A period of time or series of occurrences leading up to some important (freq. political) event; an action which prepares the way for one on a larger scale.
| 1966 Sunday Times 20 Nov. 48/2 The Petit Palais show offers, also, invaluable evidence in its drawing section of the ways in which Picasso manoeuvred during the crucial run-up to the ‘Demoiselles d'Avignon’. 1968 Listener 5 Dec. 761/1 The run-up to the election of Oxford's new Poetry Professor has aroused a good deal of mirthful interest. 1970 Daily Tel. 2 Jan. 14 The 1970s open, with the approach and run-up to the most critical General Election in a generation. 1975 M. Kenyon Mr. Big. v. 47 Heathrow was the run-up to the train job because there had to be capital. 1976 Nature 29 July 344/2 Remaining hitches in reactor technology can, it is argued, be straightened out during the 20-year run-up to a commercial FBR network. 1977 Film & Television Technician Jan. 1/2 During the run-up to the overtime ban..the Trade Press was uniformly critical of the employers. |
2. Bookbinding. (See quot. 1875.) Also attrib.
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2004/2 Run-up, a fillet-mark which runs from head to tail on the back, without mitering with the horizontal cross fillets on the panels. 1880 J. W. Zaehnsdorf Bookbinding 131 With a ‘run-up’ back, the edge of the leather round the end papers is to..have a roll run round it in gold. |
3. On the U.S. Stock Market, a rapid increase in the price or value of a commodity. Now also in gen. use.
| 1935 Sun (Baltimore) 13 Apr. 17/8 Corn advanced to 1 to 13/4 cents a bushel, but cotton was reactionary after Thursday's run-up. 1942 Ibid. 1 Oct. 21 Laclede gas preferred had a runup of 6½ points. 1953 Ibid. 30 Oct. b–28/1 A fast runup in the final dealings gave the stock market one of its sharpest boosts of the year yesterday. 1958 Wall St. Jrnl. 3 Dec. 27/4 Referring to the recent sharp run-up and activity in Walworth Co. stock, amid talk of merger possibilities, Fred W. Belz, president, said [etc.]. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 6 Mar. 4/3 The price scare and runup in the futures prices in recent weeks ‘says to me that farmers deep down inside know that this crop is not lost’. 1978 Daily Tel. 15 Sept. 21/4 Money market analysts have been watching a rapid run-up in short-term, negotiable bank certificates of deposit and commercial paper traded by corporations. 1979 Time 13 Aug. 26/3 The industry most severely dented by the oil run-up is auto manufacturing. |
4. The running of a motor or mechanical device until it attains normal working or speed; warming up.
| 1943 Yank 26 Feb. 6 Last summer the intensive heat raised hell with us AMs in making engine run-ups for regulation check on props, [etc.]. 1946 Happy Landings July 3/1 Correct use of air filters and observing precautions against dust during run up are matters for the pilot to remember. 1958 ‘Castle’ & ‘Hailey’ Flight into Danger i. 16 In the run-up each engine in turn is opened to full throttle and each of the mags tested separately. 1959 W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinematogr. 126/2 Run up, the term given to the passage of film or a magnetic recording medium through a camera or recorder before the correct recording speed is obtained; or through a projector or other machine before the first subject image or sound is reached. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio viii. 139 The reproducer may take as much as a second or so to run up... Check this run-up time by using a recording of pure tone. |