indecisive or evasive treatment, especially in response to a request:
Ask for a raise and he'll give you the runaround.
2.
Printing. an arrangement of type in which several lines are set in narrower measure than the others in a column to accommodate an illustration, initial, or the like.
Origin of runaround
1870-1875
1870-75, Americanism; noun use of verb phrase run around