run amok

Idioms  

1. Also,. Behave in a frenzied, out-of-control, or unrestrained manner. For example, I was afraid that if I left the toddler alone she would run amok and have a hard time calming down, or The weeds are running riot in the lawn, or The children were running wild in the playground. Amok comes from a Malay word for “frenzied” and was adopted into English, and at first spelled amuck, in the second half of the 1600s. Run riot dates from the early 1500s and derives from an earlier sense, that is, a hound's following an animal scent. Run wild alludes to an animal reverting to its natural, uncultivated state; its figurative use dates from the late 1700s.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

run amok

She’s an aesthete run amok, determined to deface anything that doesn’t live up to her impossible standards.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026

The poster child for vendor financing run amok was Lucent Technologies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2025

That and Curry exiting the stage when the Lions were threatening to run amok and trouble the record books.

From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2025

It would be facile and easy to argue that this level of emotion is characteristic of their “intimate male friendship” and their shared passion run amok.

From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2025

Their carts bang into mine, their children run amok.

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich

Related Words

• defy
• overthrow
• renounce
• resist
• revolt
• secede
• take up arms