end run
- Football. Also called end sweep, sweep. a running play in which the ball-carrier attempts to outflank the defensive end.
- Informal.
- an evasive or diversionary maneuver.
- an attempt to surmount a difficulty without confronting it directly.
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Origin of end run
An Americanism dating back to 1900–05
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
deceive, outfox, outmaneuver, baffle, outdo, circumvent, bamboozle, cheat, gull, confuse, hoax, have, defraud, trick, bewilder, outsmart, top, finagle, beat, overreachExamples from the Web for end run
Contemporary Examples
Except for one thing: you can't do an end-run around an enumerated right with some sort of semantic game.
Earlier talk of doing an end-run around Karzai's central government was mostly talk, but that seems to be changing.
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]
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.