runny
Americanadjective
-
tending to run or drip.
a runny paste.
-
(of the nose) discharging mucus.
adjective
-
tending to flow; liquid
-
(of the nose or nasal passages) exuding mucus
Other Word Forms
Adjective Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of runny
Explanation
Anything runny is dripping or flowing like liquid. If you have a runny nose, you should probably stuff some tissues into your pocket (or just use your sleeve). Melting ice cream is runny, dripping from your cone down your arm, and an over-easy fried egg is cooked just enough so that the yolk is a little bit runny. A completely raw egg is obviously runny, and so is the nose of a person with a cold. If you're sniffling and sneezing, your nose is probably runny, or dripping with mucus.
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.
See Examples For:
Symptoms include a rash, which can appear three to five days after onset of illness, cough, runny nose and red and watery eyes, as well as a fever that can be higher than 101 degrees.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
Covered and gently poached, the whites turned tender while the yolks stayed gloriously runny — the entire point, frankly.
From Salon ● May 12, 2026
That finding established a lower limit for how "runny" liquids can be.
From Science Daily ● May 8, 2026
One problem, though: Untreated rubber becomes brittle when exposed to cold, and tacky and runny when hot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
I made a runny mush with the oats and held a spoonful to Gran’s mouth.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Molten basalt is runnier than recycled magma and spreads out into broad “shield” volcanoes like Mars’s Olympus Mons.
From National Geographic ● Oct. 12, 2023
If you stir really fast, with more shearing force, the PB gets runnier, while if you stir slowly the PB remains stiff.
From Scientific American ● May 9, 2023
Previous work at Yellowstone revealed two magma reservoirs: one of gloopy magma 3 miles to 10 miles below the surface, and a far more enormous store of runnier magma 12 miles to 30 miles down.
From New York Times ● Dec. 1, 2022
Just know that pudding tends to be runnier than pastry custard, so you use your judgment when you're at the filling stage, lest you wind up crying into your freezer.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2021
By that measure, they estimate it is thirty times runnier than the pitch used in Queensland, a million times runnier than glass, and a hundred billion times thicker than water.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2014
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.
