verb
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to run faster, farther, or better than
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to escape from by or as if by running
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to go beyond; exceed
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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outrunsimple
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outrunssimple
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have outrunperfect
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has outrunperfect
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am outrunningprogressive
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are outrunningprogressive
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is outrunningprogressive
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have been outrunningperfect progressive
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has been outrunningperfect progressive
Past
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outransimple
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had outrunperfect
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was outrunningprogressive
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were outrunningprogressive
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had been outrunningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of outrun
Explanation
To outrun someone is to move faster than they do. Your lazy cat might enjoy hunting for mice, although the mice always seem to outrun him in the end. You can outrun an opponent in a race, and you can also watch a video game character outrun a pursuing zombie — outrun can also mean "escape from." Your dog might enjoy chasing cars, never managing to outrun them. More figuratively, you can say that your hopes always outrun the reality of a situation. In other words, what you dream of exceeds what actually happens.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Left unchecked, it could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems, and so must be pursued very carefully, if at all,” he added.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
His job was to tell them not to put too much into cash versus other investments, because cash can’t outrun inflation in the long run.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
"Left unchecked, it could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems, and so must be pursued very carefully, if at all," Amodei wrote.
From Barron's ● Sep. 13, 2026
The Americans, carrying a staggering $40 trillion in government debt, used this week’s meeting to make the case that economic growth can outrun that debt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
But I know, even as the idea occurs to me, that I won’t be able to outrun him.
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
The author outruns the evidence when he claims the NFL was “designed for gambling.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
The ability to rapidly generate a counter-narrative, complete with the imprimatur of an “AI tribunal,” is tailor-made for an attention economy where perception often outruns verification.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2026
Engineers call this problem the "memory wall," where processing speed outruns the chip's ability to feed it data.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 24, 2025
Stock-market booms always end the same way: Optimism outruns reality, capital floods in — then prices correct.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 2, 2025
My pulse outruns the seconds, each beat bringing me closer to capture.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
Nine days in February that revealed how the most powerful technology in human history outran every institution built to contain it.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 13, 2026
Nike outran expectations in its latest quarterly report.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2025
Enten noted that no party outran the polls three election cycles in a row nationally or in key battleground states since 1972.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2024
“His ambition outran his ethics,” Mr. Koenig said.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2024
Instead of having fluctuating populations that periodically outran their resources and starved, they maintained smaller populations that enjoyed an abundance of food in good years and a sufficiency in bad years.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The AI spending boom is outrunning Wall Street estimates, Trump considers changing capital-gains taxes, China’s property crisis isn’t over, and more news to start your day.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
The rate of inflation crested above 4% in May to a three-year high, briefly outrunning the typical increase in workers’ wages.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
Some see an economy at risk of overheating, with demand outrunning what the Fed’s current rate setting can restrain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
For someone who spent years outrunning love, I was surprised to learn that when I stopped spiraling in my mind, I could finally trust what my body already knew.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026
It scudded across the moon, and with a deadly cry went away westward, outrunning the wind in its fell speed.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
