Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also run) to arrest, to take to a place of confinement, usu. a police station; thus run in, arrested.

1859		G.W. Matsell Vocabulum 76: Run in, arrested.
c.1860		Drink under the Licensing Act [music hall song] It may be your fate, If not walking quite straight, By blue Guardians to be run in [F&H].
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 93/2: Don’t you think it strange that his ‘stalls’ are always getting ‘run in’ and he manages to get scot free.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Sept. n.p.: She is without doubt the ‘rustiest zuke’ in Washington. Some idea of the powers of this ‘bloss’ can be formed from the fact that it required three of our best coppers [...] to ‘run her in’.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 229: I felt indignant that such a brute should be in such a position. He ‘ran me in’ next day.
c.1880		‘O’Reilly’ [US army poem] They ran him in the mill, they’ve got him in there still, / His bob-tail’s coming back by mail, / O’Reilly’s gone to Hell.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 May 4/1: A lady has made the novel suggestion that ‘policewomen’ are needed at police-stations. She bases her reason on the fact that many women are nightly ‘run in,’ and that if any of these [...] require any attendance, it is now men who must attend them.
1884		A. Griffiths Chronicles of Newgate 547: Cummings was repeatedly ‘run in’ for the offence of coining.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 8 July 4/7: They are great at running in / Any Bushy on the rantan.
1896		Regiment 15 Aug. 297: [cartoon caption] (Belated in his cups, and wandering afar, Private Mulrooney is eventually ‘run in’ to the Quarter Guard of the 2nd V.B. of the Blankshire Blazers.
1897		E.W. Townsend Chimmie Fadden 3: Say, de cop ran me in, but it wasn’t ten minutes before she come t’de station and squared me.
1901		E.W. Hornung Black Mask (1992) 160: Going to run me in, officer?
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Jan. 5/3: If it had been a tuckpointer or a clerk [...] the probabilities are that he would hare been run in.
1906		N.Z. Truth 4 Aug. 5/7: He [...] stoushed t’other chap and was run in for assault and sent up.
1909		E. Wyrall Spike 17: In tramp language, to be ‘run’ is to be handed over to the police.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 17: These Johns run a man in, an’ swear his life away ter git a stripe on their sleeve.
1912		P.C. Wren Dew & Mildew 231: ‘Why on earth isn’t he run in?’.
1915		Comic Life 13 Feb. 1: Lawks! We’ll get run in for assault and battery!
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 76: Does ’e run me in? Does ’e start a bloomin’ sermon? ’E does not, pal.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 349: ‘Is this regular?’ ‘If this was regular we’d have the handcuffs on you and be running the lady here as an accessory.’.
1928		N.Z. Truth 17 May n.p.: [headline] Innocent Pedestrians Could be Run In.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 94: ‘Why don’t you run in Goldie Gorio?’ ‘I didn’t say who we’re going to arrest.’.
a.1936		T.E. Lawrence Mint 107: We are supposed to have a flight-lieutenant over us. I saw one, when the Sergeant Major ran me.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 93: As I was walking down the street, the copper said to me: / ‘Do you belong to the doley-oh mob? Well, just come with me.’ / Grabbed me by the collar, tried to run me in; I upped with me fist and knocked him stiff, and we all began to sing.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 232: I told Tommy Muldoon he had no call to be running me in.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 62: I can run you in.
1959		A. Zugsmith Beat Generation 59: We’ll make them pay for running you in.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 25: I aint seen you before— so I dont feel like running you in.
1965		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Confessions 101: I suppose you want the pair of us to get run in.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 55: The cop’ll come over and run me in.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 151: Hitler [...] screamed at the yard bulls to run Dean into the cooler before he shot him dead.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 21: They [i. e. detectives] have to run in a certain number every day and they don’t care who.
1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 88: We oughta run your ass in.
1999		Guardian Rev. 13 Aug. 10: In small-town Ohio [...] Bill Sims was regularly run in by the county sheriff.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 152: The cops naturally knew this, and they ran me.
2006		D. Kuipers Burning Rainbow 229: Once in 1995 he’d gone ballistic in a jealous rage and the police ran him in on charges of assault.

2. in fig., non criminal use.

1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Oct. 16/2: The most wide-awake bride of the period was an attractive young widow at Levuka [...]. Some 15 planters [...] laid periodical siege to her, and she was clever enough to keep on such good terms with them all that, when she finally ran-in the British Consul (the biggest catch in the Archipelago), the 15 rejected suitors assembled by appointment and built her a house.
1913		G.J. Kneeland Commercialized Prostitution in N.Y. City 13: Some [...] take pride in their ability to ‘run in’ a lot of customers.

3. to report on, to inform against, to betray.

1885		A. Griffiths Fast and Loose I 93: Waldo’s is the bank that’s robbed, and Mr. Surtees is the thief. But I can’t run him in.
1910		Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 27: I made certain that Rossiter had run me in for something.