run high

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.

Example Sentences

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

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In Denmark tensions have also run high after a string of mysterious sightings at airports and military installations around the country.

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Malema was convicted of hate speech less than two months ago and often lashes out at the white minority in a country where, 31 years after apartheid ended, racial tensions still run high.

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Emotions, especially anxiety, can run high among teachers and students.

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Emotions run high because Sadr is so revered by his followers - both for his political reputation, having advocated on behalf of his native Lebanon's then-marginalised Shia Muslims, and as a wider religious leader.

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