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:
"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
"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
I’m fast, but I’m not fast enough to outrun the whispers I imagine chasing at my heels.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
Longer term, the opportunity could grow into something meaningful, Seigerman said, and if uptake outruns expectations, there is real upside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 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
Adolescence is a period where the gas outruns the brake, but much more so for boys as the girls and at different times for girls and boys too.
From Salon ● Sep. 16, 2022
Boy21 outruns, outshoots, outjumps, and outdribbles everyone on the court.
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
When rates jumped in 2022 and 2023, those payments outran its income, and a central bank that used to mail the Treasury a check every week found it had nothing left to mail.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 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
As you’d expect at this time of year, I’m writing to you from chilly Des Moines, where I just outran some serious snow to cover the final week before the caucuses.
From New York Times ● Jan. 8, 2024
And in it all was his own father, the second Macon Dead, their contemporary, who was strong as an ox, could ride bareback and barefoot, who, they agreed, outran, outplowed, outshot, outpicked, outrode them all.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
It suggests demand is outrunning what suppliers can make, a dynamic that higher interest rates are supposed to tamp down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
It helps to have a dynamic, special athlete in junior receiver Jalen Flowers, who contributed one touchdown on a short pass, slipping away and outrunning helpless defenders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
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
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
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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.
