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Synonyms

run across

British  

verb

  1. (intr, preposition) to meet unexpectedly; encounter by chance

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
run across Idioms  

  1. see come across, def. 1.

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.

If you run across a professional athlete, pose for a photo standing right next to him, beta-smiling in admiration, and post it on social media.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 5, 2026

"It was a nice way to get out and move, and 18 months later I became the first type 1 diabetic to run across the UK," he says.

From BBC • Jan. 18, 2026

Cause and effect run across many scales at once, from ion channels to dendrites to circuits to whole-brain dynamics, and these levels do not behave like independent modules stacked in layers.

From Science Daily • Dec. 24, 2025

Then came the daily bullpen meltdown, with the Cardinals pushing a run across against Justin Wrobleski in the sixth, setting the stage for their eighth-inning rally against Vesia.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 6, 2025

My Wild Child instincts take over, and I run across the lawn and jump into a pile of leaves that my dad just finished raking.

From "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass

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.