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:
A million dollars’ worth of running shoes, and yet these suspects couldn’t outrun the law.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026
"In my 20s, I went to war twice thinking I could outrun my feelings," the duke said, referring to his stints in Afghanistan as a member of the Army.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
"Our strategy was to outrun the vortex dynamics," says Eryin Wang.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026
“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
She can’t truly outrun her future, but you can’t tell her body that.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
“My grandmother told me the truth always outruns a lie. She taught me not to chase the lie, just give the truth time to catch it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
The effect is disorienting at first, as perception precedes interpretation and sensation outruns speech.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 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
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
The lead would last only 10 seconds as Jordan grabbed a short pass and outran multiple defenders for a 76-yard touchdown to make it 17-14.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 13, 2024
Suzi says, and Dina replies, “That’s not true! I outran you!”
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
Demand is outrunning supply, and both companies are spending at record levels to keep up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
"In a market that has grown used to asking whether AI expectations have become too inflated, Micron's answer was blunt: demand is not fading; it is outrunning supply," said SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 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
Yet the fear of AI appears to be vastly outrunning reality, based on current labor-market trends and also the long historical record of new technologies.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 1, 2026
He escaped them and ran northward over the land towards the Ice, outrunning all who pursued him.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
