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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Yields were little changed after retracing early increases triggered by fears inflation could run high for months —and even drive the Fed to hike rates down the road.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026

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

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