run into

British  

verb

1. (also tr) to collide with or cause to collide with

   her car ran into a tree

2. to encounter unexpectedly

3. (also tr) to be beset by or cause to be beset by

   the project ran into financial difficulties

4. to extend to; be of the order of

   debts running into thousands

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run into Idioms  

1. Meet or find by chance, as in I ran into an old friend at the concert . [c. 1900]

2. See run against , def. 1.

3. Collide with, as in The car ran straight into the retaining wall . [c. 1800]

4. Incur, as in We've run into extra expenses with the renovation , or James said they've run into debt . [c. 1400]

5. Mount up, increase to, as in Her book may well run into a second volume .

6. Follow without interruption, as in What with one day running into the next, we never knew just what day it was! or He spoke so fast his words ran into one another . [Late 1600s] Also see run into a stone wall ; run into the ground .

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Example Sentences

Run into friend who later reports to group chat: “I ran into Brigid randomly earlier. She was extremely out of sorts. Like a space cadet.”

From The Guardian • Jan. 10, 2019

I love this sort of banter, so when I read that Springsteen would be adapting his 2016 memoir Born to Run into a monologue punctuated with songs, I was elated.

From Slate • Apr. 3, 2018

Run into them, and there are countless fascinating worlds opening up in front of you.

From The Guardian • May 18, 2012

Now a contemporary American suburbia is the focus; now a 1944 Pacific outpost turns the future Bedley Run into background.

From Time Magazine Archive

She’d turned the car around and driven over Mill Run into Amity Harbor, where she used the public telephone booth beside Petersen’s to call her husband and tell him.

From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson

Related Words

• allow
• challenge
• confront
• encounter
• endure
• experience
• fight
• meet
• oppose
• risk
• suffer
• take