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:
"The market is increasingly rewarding companies that expand revenue while maintaining spending discipline, and penalising those whose ambitions have outrun their balance sheets," said Fabien Yip at IG.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
"England can outrun Argentina but they just have that little genius Messi. They all play for him. Everyone should be excited," said BBC pundit Micah Richards.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
In faster-growing markets like Germany, the same doubts about data, quality and geopolitics haven’t disappeared—they’ve just been outrun, for now, by price.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
But the teen, who was not identified, continued on, apparently under the impression he could outrun — or out ride — the motorcycle officer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
She could not outrun it, and then she was lost inside, a feathery black cutout in the background, her hand still reaching for safety.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
The effect is disorienting at first, as perception precedes interpretation and sensation outruns speech.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 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
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
“We beat them. You listen to me and you be happy, Todd Hewitt. We’ve spent all this time outrunning an army and guess what? We outran them.”
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
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
"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
“I suppose it’s either a matter of outrunning your shadow or staring it down in the light.”
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
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.
