run off
Britishverb
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(intr) to depart in haste
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(tr) to produce quickly, as copies on a duplicating machine
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to drain (liquid) or (of liquid) to be drained
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(tr) to decide (a race) by a runoff
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(tr) to get rid of (weight, etc) by running
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(intr) (of a flow of liquid) to begin to dry up; cease to run
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to steal; purloin
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to elope with
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noun
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an extra race to decide the winner after a tie
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a contest or election held after a previous one has failed to produce a clear victory for any one person
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that portion of rainfall that runs into streams as surface water rather than being absorbed into ground water or evaporating
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the overflow of a liquid from a container
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grazing land for store cattle
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Escape; see run away , def. 2.
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Flow off, drain, as in By noon all the water had run off the driveway . [Early 1700s]
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Print, duplicate, or copy, as in We ran off 200 copies of the budget . [Late 1800s]
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Decide a contest or competition, as in The last two events will be run off on Tuesday . [Late 1800s]
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Also, run someone out . Force or drive someone away, as in The security guard ran off the trespassers , or They ran him out of town . [Early 1700s]
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Produce or perform quickly and easily, as in After years of practice, he could run off a sermon in a couple of hours . [Late 1600s]
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.
South Carolina scored the game’s first run in the second inning, with right fielder Jamie MacKay hitting a home run off Taylor Tinsley.
From Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2026
“To me boosting Pratt’s chances to get into a mayoral run off feel very scary.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 12, 2026
The team uses a police van to head to Pelham Street, where the children run off as officers jump out to chase them.
From BBC • May 7, 2026
Successive rounds of bond-buying during the financial crisis and the Covid pandemic pushed it to a peak near $9 trillion before the Fed began letting some holdings run off.
From Barron's • May 6, 2026
They talked about whose daughter had run off with whose son, who’d had babies, who had died, the price of groceries, the hot weather, the rickety buses between San Juan and Santurce.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
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.
