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run high

Idioms

Be intense, as in Feelings are running high on the issue of raising taxes. This expression, first recorded in 1711, transfers the strong currents or tides that make for high waves to human concerns.

Example Sentences

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run high

Giddy emotions run high and feel as if they will last forever.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 24, 2026

Worries over the fate of the site -- and what could happen -- run high.

From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 2025

It comes as tensions run high on trade with China, forcing foreign governments to reckon with their dependence on the country.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 3, 2025

This is why the erecting of a wooden fence on a stretch of beach earlier this year, has caused passions to run high.

From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2025

Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, 1839 No wonder feelings run high about the comma.

From "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Author

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023