run riot
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Intellectual license granted, the company is allowed to run riot in a performance work that maintains a Brechtian distance between actor and role.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 8, 2025
Jeremy Doku was absolutely brilliant for Manchester City in their 3-0 win on Sunday, but Liverpool's tactics were the reason he was able to run riot down their right.
From BBC • Nov. 9, 2025
Newcastle embarrassed Sheffield United 8-0 earlier this season and could have run riot once more, but Guimaraes' curling shot was tipped wide by Muric while the livewire Gordon dragged off target late on.
From BBC • May 4, 2024
The point of confining them was to provide the structure and tools to change — a goal that’s impossible to reach if they’re allowed to run riot.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 26, 2023
Let me be prosaic so far as facts can be; it will help me to bear up, and imagination must not run riot with me.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
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.
