Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) to have sexual intercourse.

1990

N.Y. Mag. 28 May 27/1: [black high school slang] ‘Getting run’ — sex.

(Aus.) to show off, to act conspicuously.

1913

Sport (Adelaide) 26 July 10/4: Stormy G. is running it pretty hot around the boarding house lately. There must be something in the wind.

(UK black) to hit with combination punches.

1972

E. Folb Urban Black Argot 144: Run / Roll Sets on Someone to hit a person with a series of double-fisted blows so quickly that he is unable to retaliate.

(UK black) to intensify a situation.

2016

Skepta ‘Crime Riddim’ 🎵 And still tryna run it up, it’s like this guy really wants to scuff / Flexing like he had something on the waist.

(US black) to give up one’s possessions to a robber.

1990		Ice Cube ‘Product’ 🎵 Gimme your car, run your jewels.
2000		Funkmaster Flex ‘Ante Up’ 🎵 When I cock that tool, nigga, run your damn jewels.
2013		Run the Jewels ‘Run the Jewels’ 🎵 When we say “run the jewels” just run’ em baby, please don’t delay me.

(UK black/und.) to break into, to rob.

2020

G. Krauze What They Was 74: [We] look for yards we could run up in once the owner had gone to work [...] run up and kick off the door while adrenaline bursts in the guts.

(N.Z. prison) a surprise attack upon another inmate.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 157/1: run-by n. = drive-by.

(UK und.) defrauding one’s debtors.

1935

Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks n.p.: At the run-away: Welshing.

(UK und.) fraud under the guise of conducting a Dutch auction under Dutch adj.¹

1935

Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks n.p.: At the run-out: Dutch auctioneering.

(N.Z. prison) on a disciplinary report.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 157/1: on run-ups phr. on report.

see also under relevant n. or adj.

(Aus.) to be intense, usu. of emotions or feelings.

1898		Examiner (Launceston, Aus.) 11 Oct. 6/3: Feeling is running a banker at Devonport in reference to the coming election.
1910		Truth (Sydney) 30 Oct. 1/8: For their lingual rivers often run a banker, / Run a banker, / And the oaths they uses sometimes weighs a ton, / Weighs a ton.
1945		in R. Farmer Shanghai Harvest in DSUE (1984).

(W.I.) to pool resources to buy a meal.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 45: Run a boat the act of pooling resources to afford and prepare a meal; cooking: u. we a go run a boat.

(Anglo-Irish) to register an invalid vote.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1997		Share Slanguage.

(US) to play tricks on, to defraud.

1925

D. Hammett ‘Tom, Dick, or Harry’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 245: I’d like to smoke it out a little further, far enough to put anybody away who has been trying to run a hooligan on the North American.

see outrun the constable v. (1)

(gaming) for a thrown die to roll some distance.

1674

C. Cotton Compleat Gamester 14: Another way the rook hath to cheat, is by [...] Slurring, that is by taking up your Dice as you will have them advantageously lie in your hand, placing the one a top the other, not caring if the uppermost run a Mill-stone.

1. to have a relationship or a friendship.

1887		Lantern (N.O.) 9 July 2: She used to run around with Jim Reiley.
1913		Day Book (Chicago) 3 Mar. 3/2: They want their evenings free to run around with young fellows.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 169–70: I suppose Einstein is a good fellow and all that, but you ’ve been running around with him a lot.
1935		E. Anderson Hungry Men 99: He’s just a boy I ran around with some.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 53: I ran around with all sorts of women.
1972		J. Maryland ‘Shoe-shine on 63rd’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 212: Who said anything about Sweet Blood [...] running around here with Ann?

2. to carry on sexual affairs, deceiving one’s primary partner.

1927		T. Alexander ‘Evil Women Blues’ 🎵 These women round here I just can’t understand / These women round here I just can’t understand / They run around here with one another man.
1928		R. Lardner ‘Ex Parte’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 211: He drinks all the time, or he runs around, or he doesn’t give her any money.
1931		Cab Calloway ‘You Dog (Aw, You Dog)’ 🎵 They got the news all over town, / You and my wife been running ’round.
1939		P. Cheyney Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 106: She thought the fact that she was runnin’ around with him would stop her husband startin’ a lotta trouble an’ goin’ after her.
1949		Jimmy Rogers ‘Ludella’ 🎵 Now Ludella you done start some side stuff baby / You’re runnin’ around on me.
1958		H. Whittington Web of Murder (2000) 4: Maybe you’d like it better if I ran around. I could, you know. Plenty of men are interested in me.
1969		C.B. Hopper Sex in Prison 108: She related that her husband had been ‘running around’ before his commitment.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 54: He’s got a hernia, five brats, and a wife he can’t stomach what runs around on him every chance she gets.
1997		D.H. Edwards The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing 200: I didn't really run around on her, not nothing serious. There was never a woman on the side I had to go see.
2002		R. Gordon Can’t Be Satisfied 28: ‘He had a lot of trouble with his first wife, Mabel [...] He was running around on her‘.
2010		R. Skloot Henrietta Lacks 145: [He had] grown into a handsome ladies’ man. He did some running around, but pretty much stayed out of trouble.

see buzz around like a blue-arsed fly under buzz v.¹

(Aus.) to be very angry; thus comparative meaner than a cut cat.

1998		I. Rosser ‘Cattle Stories No. 1’ 🌐 Now, this bloke (the bull) had the biggest set of horns you ever did see in your life! He was a crowd favourite at rodeos as he was meaner than a cut cat.
2002		P.R. Wilkinson Thes. Trad. Eng. Metaphors 364: run around like a cut cat [Aus] Be and behave in a temper.

(US/Aus.) to deceive, to hoax.

1845		D. Corcoran Pickings from N.O. Picayune (1847) 76: In New Orleans playing off a joke is called running a saw.
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 122: ‘I never joke on such serious matters.’ [...] ‘Excuse me, Jack; I know you don’t. I thought that you were running a saw on me.’.

(US) to be wanted, usu. by the police.

1990

S. Morgan Homeboy 45: In case you dont know it, you runnin a high temperature.

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

see under run down v.

(US campus) to behave in a socially unacceptable manner, esp. when acting ‘above one’s station’ as stated by the larger group.

1920

F.S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald III (1960) 52: Talking of clubs was running it out; standing for anything very strong, as, for instance, drinking parties or teetotalling, was running it out; in short, being personally conspicuous was not tolerated.

(US) to test a reaction to a new idea or concept; usu. as let’s run it up...; many ad hoc vars. occur as exemplified by cit. 1954.

1954		N.Y. Herald Trib. 1 Mar. 15/1: One ad man, sniffing away at a program idea, turned to his colleagues and remarked: ‘Let’s drop this down the well and see how big a splash it makes.’ [Ibid.] 2 Apr. 21/1: Take this one, for example, which is a very real example of Madison Ave.: ‘Let’s roll some rocks and see what crawls out.’ Obviously the boys are not expecting much. In the old days, they used to ‘mother hen’ an idea, or they’d say ‘let’s incubate this and see what hatches’, and this, with its intimations of maternity, was kind of sweet and touching. [Ibid.] 14 June 17/1: And if you’re seeking new ways to say ‘I like it but let’s, for God’s sake, go slowly’ [...] here are a couple that should get you through the morning. ‘Let’s smear it on the cat and see if she licks it off.’ Or: ‘Let’s send it on a local and see if it comes back express.’.
1957		M. Shulman Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1959) 150: Run it up the mast, and let’s see if anybody salutes.
1958		Mad mag. Jan.–Feb. 17: The minute we received your article we put it on the 5.25 to westport to see whether it would get off. It didn’t. Then we picked up the ball and rolled it down the alley to see how many pins would fall. Not enough.
1988		Galton & Simpson Best of Steptoe and Son 4: ‘OK, man,’ we said, ‘let’s run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it.’ (Just to show that we were just as au courant trans-Atlantic-wise as he was).
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 151: The hubbub of talking business and gossip, doing deals, running shit up flagpoles.
2008		Simon & Zorzi ‘Unconfirmed Reports’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 2 [TV script] I’ll run it up the flagpole.

1. of a racehorse, to run very badly; occas. to run fast.

1914		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 7 Oct. 1/7: John Porter is a bit of a puzzle to punters: one day he runs like a hairy dog, and the next day like a greyhound.
1919		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 9 July 6/1: He would show you a gallop on the track on the morning of a race that would justify any one putting his last trouser button on and would then run like a hairy Wilhelm goat.
1920		Sun (Sydney) 30 Dec. 8/1: ‘Ain’t ’e a beaut?’ ‘Yah! Yer ain't got an earthly, Dago!’ chaffed the Imp, good-humoredly, ‘’E runs like a hairy goat’.
1927		Westralian Worker (Perth) 21 Oct. 9/3: Later on [...] he saw Nico (another imported thing) running like a hairy dog at the tail of the field in the Goodwood Handicap !
1930		Truth (Sydney) 19 Jan. 3/5: Clark [...] put the best part of a thousand on the imported horse, only to see him run like a hairy goat.
1930		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 11 Nov. 4/4: Irish Eyes had run like a hairy dog at her two previous starts and punters were beginning to think that she wasn't worth a ‘caser’.
1934		Truth (Brisbane) 14 Jan. 4/3: She went, like a hairy goat, and those who had backed her were prepared to tear up their tickets before the field had covered a couple of furlongs.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1946		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 1 Oct. 8/3: She’d have landed the daily double sure enough if the thing she chose for the first leg hadn’t run like a hairy goat.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 40: The last one you gave me [as a racing tip] ran like a hairy goat.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 23: An it ran like a hairy goat an I did me chips.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 83: As if they was watching the Cup favourite run like a hairy goat.
1978		J. Hepworth His Book 113: When the barrier flew up Warrego Willie went like a hairy goat – never even looked like running a drum [GAW4].
[1984		W. Ammon et al. Working Lives 89: That thing! That hairy goat beat my beautiful little pony? Never].
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 76: Davo has a dead cert for the trots. It runs like a hairy goat so they go down the rubbedy for a quick one to drown their sorrows.
2001		posting at Ausrace Mailing List 8 Jan. 🌐 That’s what racing is all about, working out a ‘moral’ only to see it run like a hairy goat and then win next start at 8/1 when you’ve already scrubbed it.
2004		Racing Post (UK) 🌐 Mann said: ‘He’s the best work horse we’ve ever had in the yard, but he wins when he wants to and on other occasions can run like a hairy goat.’.

2. of a motor vehicle, to run badly.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 96: hairy dog/goat, run like a Poorly performing ANZ racehorse or motorcar. Mid C20.

see separate entry.

1. (US) to talk excessively, to talk rubbish [SE run off, of water, to flow away].

1861		Temple Bar III 552: Then my lady ran off to tell us how dull Fernwood was .
1889		Philips & Wills Fatal Phryne II ii 33: And then the sick man ran off into unintelligible mutterings .
1973		J. Wambaugh Onion Field 148: And if Powell don’t run off with his fat mouth and tell them all he knows about me, well shit, I might get out of this yet.

2. (US black) to be sustained by something, esp. a drug [SE run, to function].

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 252: run off of (something) 1. Get one’s energy from. 2. Sustain oneself through. 3. Maintain one’s high through .

(orig. US) to talk to excess and to the irritation of one’s audience; to lose one’s temper or launch into a diatribe.

1909		DN III. 403: Runnin’ off at the mouth [...] loquacity; talking too much. Used of one excessively loquacious. ‘He’s got a bad case of runnin’ off at the mouth.’.
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 588: run off at the mouth, v. phr. To talk excessively.
1930		L. Sage Last Rustler 150: The old man began to run off at the head in an unusual way.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 4: ‘Mouthy’ [...] referred to a man who could talk of nothing of interest or value, but ‘just run off at the mouth to hear his head rattle.’.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 136: There is no use running off at the chin that way. I wrote that article because I had to.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 288: I was jist runnin’ off at th’ mouth.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 192: What am I runnin’ off at the mouth for?
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 8: Steve wished Whitey would quit running off at the lip. [Ibid.] 90: You start running off at the lip [...] and you’ll get what the old guy got.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 149: And the way it turned out, she ain’t just running at the mouth.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 38: You ought to run along an’ turn a trick ’steada standin’ here runnin’ off at the mouth.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 196: Quit running at the jaws like you’re on speed. Get going.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 41: You know how people run off at the mouth.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 207: The quickest way to get over an argument with him was to let him run off at the lip.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 3: Sucker runnin’ off at the jibs. [Ibid.] 243: jibs, jaw at the/run off at the 1. Talk too much. 2. Engage in foolish or irrelevant talk.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 57: Every fucking week Omar would be up there, running off at the mouth about the Utopia case.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 17: Flip played himself...He was talking rhetoric. Talking trash. Throwing hype. Shootin’ off his fat lip. Running off at the mouth.
2002		A. Duff Jake’s Long Shadow 63: Some of the guys were running off at the mouth. Piss talk it was called.

to masturbate.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 115: to masturbate [...] run off by hand (mid ’60s).

(US) to be annoyed, to talk angrily.

1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 112: He don’t like nobody to go in when he’s running off his mouth.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 106: Will one of you noisy bastards stop running off your mouths out there and get me my damned spike?
1997		C. Newland Scholar 291: Jus’ ’cause I don’t run off my mout’, don’t mean I can’t flex.

(US Und.) arrested.

1960

C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 253: Me and another cat got run on when we took off a bar.

(US) to be unintelligent.

1967

M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 106: Paul’s running on dim lights.

(Aus.) to die.

1918

C.J. Dennis Digger Smith 108: Final, to run one’s — To die. [Ibid.] 110: Run ’is final — Died.

1. to gossip, to tell tales.

1933		Louis Armstrong [instrumental title] You Run Your Mouth, I’ll Run My Business.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 88: The chicks really run their mouths some spieling their life histories in my face.
1948		Z.N. Hurston Seraph on the Suwanee (1995) 726: Jim was off somewhere. Could be down there in the grove running his mouth off with Alfredo.
1957		‘Ed Lacy’ Lead With Your Left (1958) 50: You can get into trouble by talking too damn much. Know who you’re talking to before you run your gums.
1958		‘Ed Lacy’ Room to Swing 113: Sorry, boy, I shouldn’t have run my mouth like that.
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 95: You run your big fat ignorant mouth and me and Professor Solly gon run our business.
1965		(con. 1930s) R. Wright Lawd Today 28: Running your old fat mouth like always, huh?
1972		(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 97: She dressed slowly and ran her mouth constantly.
1977		A. Brooke Last Toke 53: ’Bout time you be listenin’ ’stead o’ keep runnin’ you mouth.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 55: It could be he called her Bouche because her mouth was pretty, because she ran it all the time, or because it was her sexual speciality.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 378: It was Savage [...] who run his mouf how the plaguers oughta be taken out to the range n shot.
2000		Eminem ‘Marshall Mathers’ 🎵 Now everybody wanna run they mouth / and try to take shots at me.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 87: Back in IYC you ran your jaws [...] about the big-time crooks that you was runnin’ with.
2012		Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 14: This ain’t about no eighty. It’s about you runnin your gums.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] ‘You better run your legs faster than you do your mouth’.

2. to give advice.

1940		Louis Jordan ‘You Run Your Mouth and I’ll Run My Business’ 🎵 You always tellin’ me what to do, / Sayin’, ‘I wouldn’t do that if I was you!’ / You run your mouth and I’ll run my business, brother.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 23 Aug. in Proud Highway (1997) 393: My impression is that one American working with his hands in Latin America is worth ten running their mouths.
1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 17: The one that’s always runnin’ his damned mouth is walkin’ off.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 148: ‘Don’t run your mouth,’ he said. ‘Just listen for a minute.’.

3. to talk without restraint.

1902		J.D. Corrothers Black Cat Club 128: Let de man talk, can’t you? You allus runnin’ yo’ gab!
1945		R.M. Lindner Stone Walls and Men 356: If you talked in your sleep it meant court and you were therefore charged with ‘running your mouth’ in the dormitory.
1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 40: Shirley ran her mouth too much. She talked a streak.
1967		S. Hopkinson Onliest Fisherman 5: How your mouth run so, like diarrhoea?
1981		M. Baker Nam (1982) 145: This guy is running his mouth. You can’t keep him from talking. You’d have to gag him to make him shut up.
1993		S. King Dolores Claiborne 65: She ran her mouth until she got all tuckered out.
2008		Sun. Indep. (S. Afr.) Culture 27 Jan. 11: He’s hot-wired with the joy of running his mouth.
2008		A. Wheatle Dirty South 123: Noel decided to run his gums on the Akeisha situation.

4. (also run up one’s mouth) to brag, to boast, to fantasize.

1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 102: He reckons he’s having a party next week, but I feel so he’s running up his mout’.
2004		Taskforce ‘Remus Returns’ 🎵 You’re only starting out / So do not run your mouth.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 145: A bona fide killer or just another schmuck running his jaws.

5. (also run up one’s mouth) to stop talking, to be quiet.

1994		M. Montague Dread Culture 45: ‘Lawd Doris, mind yuh kill di bwoy,’ teased her husband. ‘Cho! Gwaan run up yuh mout, man.’.
2007		UGK ‘Life Is 2009’ 🎵 You need to take my advice and stop snitchin fool / Or you can close yo’ ears, and run yo’ mouth.

see bet on the wrong side of the post under bet v.

1. to treat contemptuously, to victimize; to defeat.

1847		W.T. Porter Quarter Race in Kentucky 23: I would not advise any man to try to run over me .
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 59: Not to put a feather-edge on it, I thought I’d run you over, an’ see if they’d been fixin’ you.
1941		C.S. Johnson Growing Up in the Black Belt 20: ‘Turn favors if people do something for you, and don’t run over folks or take advantage of them’.
1959		A. Anderson ‘Blueplate Special’ in Lover Man 127: ‘[A]ll you gotta do is see that these ofays don’t run all over you’.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 3: I happen to be writing it in my spare time between running over a whole pile of niggers in the National Football League.
1983		S. King Christine 193: The football team had been run over twice more.
1986		D. Barker (con. 1925) Life in Jazz 75: [T]wo rogues [...] started running over everybody. ‘Every payday they won all the money, talking big, running their moufs’.
1992		P. Earley Hot House 158: ‘If some guy insults you [and] you haven’t done anything, then you know he is trying to run over you and you must take it to him immediately. Get right in his face’.

2. see sense 2 above.

to escape or evade.

c.1790		‘De Kilmainham Minit’ in Luke Caffrey’s Gost 6: But yet, if de Slang you run sly, / De Trotler may yet be outwitted, / And I scout again on de Lay.
c.1791		Kilmainham Minit in Walsh Ireland Sixty Years Ago (1885) 88: But if dat de slang you run sly, / De scrag-boy may yet be outwitted, / And I scout again on de lay.

1. to exhaust or wear out someone or something.

1913		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 19 Aug. 12/1: ‘More drills’ is the call from the company captain [...] the instructors and chief officers have been run ragged.
1917		H.S. Truman letter 3 Oct. in Ferrell Dear Bess (1983) 228: From then on until twelve-thirty salesmen nearly ran me ragged.
1927		M. West Drag (1997) Act II: I don’t know about husbands. I only have one and one is enough. He just runs me ragged.
1934		L. Berg Prison Nurse (1964) 114: I run myself ragged getting all dolled up in a clean shirt and a shave. But does she come? In a pig’s eye, she does!
1949		A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 108: John Dillinger [...] was running Hoover’s men ragged in Indiana.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 205: You got my permission to run your ass ragged.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 181: I run myself ragged to save you from the cops.
1977		J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 110: They run me ragged, those guys.
2000		Observer Screen 30 Apr. 18: After running his other grandparents [...] ragged.

2. (also run someone raggity) to beat.

1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 42: [He] told me to go out in the railroad yards and, if I saw anyone there who had no business to be there to knock their blocks off and run’ em ragged.
1933		(con. 1860s) R. Bradford Kingdom Coming 263: De sergeant run you raggity do he ketch you wid a fire.
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 64: We’ll run that jocker’s ass ragged till it hangs so low it’ll drag out his tracks!
1987		(con. 1967) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 20: They can be cut up. Run their butts ragged in the ring. Outbox their asses.
1994		J. O’Connor Secret World of the Irish Male (1995) 239: The Dutch start to take over the game, and soon they are running us ragged.

3. to subject to censure and punishment.

1922		Eve. World (NY) 28 Sept. 32/2: he has been run ragged by said young writers.
1933		W. Scott ‘Take ’Im Alive’ Und. Mag. May 🌐 Headquarters would run me ragged if I messed in that case to chisel in on th’ reward.

see run it up the flagpole (and see if anyone salutes)

of money, to run short.

1859, 1860

Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.

(Aus./N.Z.) to buy beer in bulk, to be brought home and drunk there.

[1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 22: Sailors, as a rule, are not friends of bailiffs or Custom House officers, and thus appreciate ‘running the cutter’].
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Nov. 11/3: Dirty and disreputable mobs are to be seen at nearly every pub and street corner any hour of the day and night cadging ‘trays’ or ‘tanners’ from the passers-by until they get enough to ‘run the cutter,’ generally a black billy-can.
1942		Cairns Post (Qld) 31 Mar. 1/4: Sir—In to-day’s quiz you state that ‘to run the rabbit’ means in Australian language, to fetch beer from a hotel. Well, you may be right, but in the bush we call it ‘running the cutter’.
1943		J.A.W. Bennett ‘Eng. as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 89: Running the cutter (i.e. obtaining liquor for people who cannot get it themselves) is used without any appreciation of its original meaning of smuggling.

(US prison) to eviscerate.

1992		P. Earley Hot House 42: [T]he murderer would have, as he said later, ‘run the gears’—a reference to the most effective method of stabbing another human being, as in, ‘You slam a shank into his chest and then pull up and over and then down and over, just like shifting gears in a car’.
1999		Guardian Weekend 6 Nov. 42: Things like ‘running the gears’, plunging a knife into another’s abdomen, then slicing up and across so the victim was eviscerated and his guts spilled into his hands.

to rob someone, to defraud; thus (Aus.) run-through boy, a street robber, a mugger.

1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 111: Well, I finks I must run froo ’im if I see my way.
1923		G.D.H. & M. Cole Brooklyn Murders (1933) 46: He had run through one big fortune, his wife’s — including all the money left in trust for Miss Cowper.
2000		P. Temple Dead Point (2008) [ebook] Just run-through boys [...] Too clever for banks, too lazy for drugs.

1. to understand; as phr., run to tick, to be acceptable.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864		Derby Day 40: ‘That game won’t answer here,’ said Tony; ‘it doesn’t run to tick at the “Horse and Jockey”.’.

2. to be able to afford, usu. in negative [SE in 20C+].

1883		‘’Arry on His Critics and Champions’ in Punch 14 Apr. 180/1: Tin does it, my pippin, not taste. I can’t run to the Gaiety Stalls / Cig’rettes, petty soopers, and so on, but then I’ve got the fun of the ’Alls.
1890		‘’Arry on [...] the Glorious Twelfth’ in Punch 30 Aug. 97/2: No Moors for yours truly, wus luck! It won’t run to it, Charlie, this round.
1900		P. White West End 40: I always had an idea that the Guv’nor had some money, but I didn’t imagine it would run to this [F&H].

(US black) of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

2002

Simon & Burns ‘The Pager’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 5 [TV script] I wouldn’t run up in that bitch with DeAngelo’s dick .

1. (US) to meet (a person).

1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 83: I’ll be about the Village for a spell, so we’ll be running up on each other, hear?
1969		R.L. Keiser Vice Lords 30: There are these accidental fights. Say you walking [...] and you meet the Cobras. You’re not really looking for them, but when you run up on them you go down.
1977		B. Jackson Killing Time 177: I wasn’t out very long until I run up on one of my girl friends.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 7: No way Rings wanted to run up on the Pimp Blimp.
2012		W.D. Myers All the Right Stuff 119: I was going home and ran up on Sly.

2. (US black) to challenge, to attack physically; to ambush.

1969		R.L. Keiser Vice Lords 79: I’m out the Lords. [...] Maybe the first time I turn my back somebody might run up on me.
1991		L. Bing Do or Die (1992) 33: I don’t feel like gettin’ run upon [...] I make money for myself. Why should I let someone else run up on me for it.
2002		50 Cent ‘Wanksta’ 🎵 What make you think I wont / Run up on you with the nine.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Run up on - make the first move in an impending fight - approach unexpectedly or take by surprise.

3. (US) in fig. use, to encounter (an idea, a situation).

1972

Milner & Milner Black Players 128: Right on, I run up on that [Black on Black hostility] all the time.

see run one’s mouth (off)

(orig. US black) to associate with, to be friends with.

1837		A. Greene Glance at N.Y. II ii: I go fur Bill Sykesy ’cos he runs wid our merchaine – but he mustn’t come foolin’ round my gal, or I’ll give him fits!
1846		Durivage & Burnham Stray Subjects (1848) 107: I seen her on the sidewalk, / When I run with number nine.
1871		L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 47: To run with signifies to keep the company of, to become identified with.
1899		A.C. Gunter M.S. Bradford Special 6: At one time you were society man — ran with the ‘bloods.’.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 168: He had told me with considerable detail how expensive it is ‘to run with guns.’.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 54: She’d been runnin’ with Butch Willows pretty steady.
1926		Z.N. Hurston Sweat (1995) 957: That ole snaggle-toothed black woman you runnin’ with ain’t comin’ heah.
1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 157: I don’t like that Irishman you’re running with.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 22: I could run with the hip cats who hung around the poolroom.
1958		H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 25: Listen, how long you figure I gotta run with this crowd?
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 112: I’d be running with Danny and Butch and Kid again.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 154: George Rimmer might have been a loner, or run with an Okie clique.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 51: She been runnin’ wid dese kids from the Hill.
1998		M. Newall ‘Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knyght’ in Indep. Weekend Rev. 26 Dec. 1: Well apointede, as it happened. Usede to runne wyth Arthur.
2004		(con. 1980s) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 283: Most of the people he knew I ran with on the out were big puff-heads.
2013		F. Bill Donnybrook [ebook] ‘Know you used to run with them two. Was hoping maybe you knew who them two been running with’.