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run in the blood

Idioms  

  1. Also, run in the family. Be characteristic of a family or passed on from one generation to the next, as in That happy-go-lucky trait runs in the blood, or Big ears run in the family. The first term dates from the early 1600s, the second from the late 1700s.

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.

This apathy does not run in the blood.

From New York Times • Sep. 16, 2020

Idealism seems to run in the blood of Hollywood's new junior class, several of whom grew up in counterculture families.

From Time Magazine Archive

Thought it would run in the blood, but I guess not.

From "Clean Getaway" by Nic Stone

Every time Scoob hears it, he wants to say: Being criminally minded doesn’t run in the blood either.

From "Clean Getaway" by Nic Stone

V. be in the blood, run in the blood; be born so; be intrinsic &c. adj.

From Roget's Thesaurus by Roget, Peter Mark

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.