end run

See synonyms for: end runend runs on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. Football.Also called end sweep, sweep. a running play in which the ball-carrier attempts to outflank the defensive end.

  2. Informal.

    • an evasive or diversionary maneuver.

    • an attempt to surmount a difficulty without confronting it directly.

Origin of end run

1
An Americanism dating back to 1900–05

Words Nearby end run

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use end run in a sentence

  • To conclude, the short question will be, Whether you will join with those who must in the end run the same fate with you?

    Political Pamphlets | George Saintsbury
  • The lowest range of arches opening from the Grinfield-street end run to the northward.

  • Wisdom and power and means directed to an end run all through the scheme of Nature.

    The Stark Munro Letters | J. Stark Munro
  • Claflin got another first down by two plunges at the right of the opponent's line and a wide end-run.

    Left Guard Gilbert | Ralph Henry Barbour
  • An end run was blocked, a third forward pass was intercepted.

    Red Dynamite | Roy J. Snell

Other Idioms and Phrases with end run

end run

Evasive action, as in The new department head was making an end run around the old hands who opposed her appointment. This term comes from American football, where it denotes an offensive play in which the ball carrier runs around one end of the opposing team's line. [Mid-1900s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.