Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to denigrate someone, to slander someone; similarly used of inanimate objects.

1668		Dryden An Evening’s Love I i: I am revenged on you, for running down my poor old master.
1680–1		N. Lee Princess of Cleve II iii: After all, they’ll thus run you down, and say your Grace is no Scholar.
1687		J. Phillips [trans.] Cervantes Don Quixote 170: Sancho, who was [...] hearing Knight-Errantry exploded, as quite out of fashion, and all Romances run down for Fiction, Lyes, and Chimera’s.
1710		R. Steele Tatler No. 226 n.p.: He found himself run down as a superficial prating Quack.
1756		W. Toldervy Hist. of the Two Orphans III 200: Their excellency lies in rude, choquing expressions, and what they call running a man down.
1800		Sporting Mag. Oct. XVII 42/2: Nymphs of renown, / Who with smiles and grimaces – are running her down!
1821		W. Hazlitt ‘On Living to one’s-self’ in Table-Talk I 230: It [i.e. the public] reads, it admires, it extols only because it is the fashion, not from any love of the subject or the man. It cries you up or runs you down out of mere caprice and levity.
1833		A. Greene Life and Adventures of Dr Dodimus Duckworth II 70: But ’tis’nt my business to run down my neighbours.
1836		T. Haliburton Clockmaker I 54: I don’t like to hear you run down king Solomon neither.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 228: It don’t do to run down everything either, especially to the ladies.
1845		S. Judd Margaret (1851) I 189: ‘Gummy!’ retorted the woman. ‘He has been a talkin’ about me, and a runnin’ of me down.’.
1856		E. Moxon (ed.) Table-talk of Samuel Rogers 235: [A]t Pisa, when Shelley and Trelawney were with us, Byron chose to run down Shakespeare.
1860		E. Eden Semi-Attached Couple (1979) 140: Now, my dear Beaufort, do not you join to run down poor Stuart.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1888		A. Levy Reuben Sachs (2001) 63: He is always running them down.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer II 10: I mean it to apply to all of you men who run down the poor Count so.
1902		A.N. Lyons Hookey 141: All our men-servants are very nice. The other gals don’t think so; an’ always run ’em down.
1906		Marvel 6 Oct. 308: You know I ain’t one of those who run down Andrews.
1908		A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 298: An’ mind you, ’e is MY BOY, an’ anybody as runs ’im down ’ll learn about it. I can put ’em up all right.
1910		‘Word-List From West Brattleboro’ in DN III:vi 454: run down, v. To depreciate, disparage. ‘He run down the whole town and all the people.’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 696: She was edging to draw down a conversation about husbands and talk about him to run him down.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 128: You can run me down and call me names.
1944		J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 267: It’s no good running down the government.
1948		J. Evans Halo For Satan (1949) 146: It suddenly hit him [...] that he’d been running down a customer and the customer might find out about it.
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 148: You wouldn’t be any happier there judging by the way you’re running the colonel down.
1953		J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 17: They were always running someone down.
1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 57: Mick, whose ears are as sharp as his eyes are dim, was always hearing Paul running him down as a musician.
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 70: Just because you like English schools doesn’t mean you have to run down American ones.
2000		Indep. Rev. 19 May 1: Don’t run Easington down.

2. (W.I.) to seduce someone, to persuade them to become one’s lover.

1929		E. Caldwell Bastard (1963) 26: The women in this town run the men down. [Ibid.] 69: Say, kid, why did you start hustling? [...] What made you start running down men?
1940		Louis Jordan ‘I’m Alabama Bound’ 🎵 Oh, the rooster crowed, / And the hen looked ’round, / Says, ‘If you want me to love you, / You gotta run me down.’.
1964		W. Dixon ‘The Same Thing’ 🎵 Why do all of these men try to run a big-leg woman down / Must be the same old thing that makes the bulldog hug a hound.

3. (also run it) to rehearse, to practise, to explain.

1948		Down Beat 1 Dec. 10: We ran down three new instrumentals.
1959		G. Kanin Blow Up a Storm 19: I distributed the parts and we ran it down.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 410: He could run down the Civil War, shot for shot.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 47: I flapped my ears when I heard one of the white repeaters running down the joint [...] to a fish.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 7: Teaching English in some little ivy-covered brick schoolhouse in New England – running down Jack London to all those blond little plumpling dumpling kids.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 169: He had Marty run down the score for him.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 73: They laid that shit out and ran it down.
1999		‘The Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 84: Let me run you down some of my rap.
2000		W.D. Myers ‘Kitty and Mack: A Love Story’ in 145th Street 102: ‘Run it, Mack [...] ‘You talk all that good-doing stuff and I’ll listen’ .
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 576: Bayard ran it down. Bayard described mirrors and mike plants. Bayard described a fruit squeeze.
2005		W.D. Myers Autobiog. of My Dead Brother 113: When Calvin ran it back at me, it sounded more like everyday news.
2008		W.D. Myers Sunrise Over Fallujah 6: In case you’re too stupid to follow what I’m saying I will run it down for you very slowly and very carefully.
2010		W.D. Myers Lockdown 246: He knows in his heart that’s [i.e. making a rap CD] not going to happen, but he’s still running it.

4. to verbalize.

1967		C. Cooper Jr Farm (1968) 94: I cut it off by running down my holebit and the thing that brought it on.
1970		B. Seale Seize the Time 42: I had always been running down about how we need this organization, that organization, but never anything concrete.