run high

Idioms  

1. 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.

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Example Sentences

But although passions run high on both sides of the Atlantic, European and American core interests remain deeply linked.

From The Wall Street Journal

Still, when the riot finally starts, the tensions run high.

From The Wall Street Journal

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

From Barron's

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

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