Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Run down   /rən daʊn/   Listen
Run down

verb
1.
Trace.  Synonym: check out.
2.
Move downward.
3.
Injure or kill by running over, as with a vehicle.  Synonym: run over.
4.
Use up all one's strength and energy and stop working.  Synonyms: conk out, peter out, poop out, run out.
5.
Examine hastily.  Synonyms: glance over, rake, scan, skim.
6.
Deplete.  Synonyms: exhaust, play out, sap, tire.  "We quickly played out our strength"
7.
Pursue until captured.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Run down" Quotes from Famous Books



... so wildly, Ivan Petrowitsch? Why do the big drops of sweat run down thy forehead? Why do thy limbs tremble, and why dost thou look so sadly ...
— The Merchant of Berlin - An Historical Novel • L. Muhlbach

... Grantham to amuse the women," he said to himself; "that will be more in his line than mine. I will run down to Cowes to-morrow and have a chat with Johnson; we shall want a different sort of stores altogether to those we generally carry, and I suppose we must do ...
— Tales of Daring and Danger • George Alfred Henty

... know. It's great to fly through a storm. You can just ride on its wings. Throw on your raincoat and come on quick! I'm going to run down to the Beach. Who's afraid of an old storm with this ...
— The Foolish Virgin • Thomas Dixon

... times through a flame, and leave it, at the ordinary temperature of a comfortable room, half an hour. If, however, quicker results are desired, boil a little water in a test tube and put in about double the above indicated amount of the glycerine mixture, letting it run down the side of the tube, gently shake until absorbed, and pour out the hot liquid into a convenient dish, and at once put in the cover with sputum. Without further attention to the temperature the stain will be effected within two minutes; but the result is not quite so ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 417 • Various

... himself to think no more about it? No. Not on your life he hadn't. He'd stood up to himself. He'd asked himself what the hell was the matter, and he'd gone after it, as any grown man would. It hadn't been fun. He remembered that the sweat had run down his face as though he'd been handling planks in the lumber-yard ...
— The Brimming Cup • Dorothy Canfield Fisher

... engaged I became bothered by curious, irregular sounds of faint tapping on the deck. They could be heard single, in pairs, in groups. While I wondered at this mysterious devilry, I received a slight blow under the left eye and felt an enormous tear run down my cheek. Raindrops. Enormous. Forerunners of something. Tap. ...
— The Shadow-Line - A Confession • Joseph Conrad

... herself. Her fancies were but fancies, she told herself; and they had ceased to trouble her. The boy's letters to his mother were ordinary and natural: he was reading fairly hard; his coach was as pleasant a person as he had seemed; he hoped to run down to Stantons for a few days at Christmas. There was nothing whatever to alarm anyone; plainly his ridiculous attitude about Spiritualism had been laid by; and, better still, he was beginning to recover himself after his ...
— The Necromancers • Robert Hugh Benson

... run down and hop into my car and take this note to Lady Powell-Carewe—don't fail to call her 'Pole Cary.' She is to design your wealthy wardrobe, and I want her to study you and do something unheard of in novelty ...
— We Can't Have Everything • Rupert Hughes

... Woman's inability to understand Man and Man's inability to understand Himself, and set it under her window. It made such a roll of paper that the goldfinch's nest looked as though it were distent with a sort of misshapen ostrich egg. All day I waited with a heart as silent as a great clock run down; my system of philosophy swung dead in the air. To my tortured vision as I eyed it secretly from my porch, it took on the semblance of one of Sylvia's poetical potatoes, and I found myself urging in its behalf Sylvia's fondest ...
— Aftermath • James Lane Allen

... I will run down to the village," I said to Lillian. "This is the day the candy kitchen makes up the fresh toasted marshmallows. I think we could ...
— Revelations of a Wife - The Story of a Honeymoon • Adele Garrison

... days a hot thrill might run down the Calea Vittorei, and all at once Capsa's and the other little booths in this miniature Vanity Fair would seem strange and far-away. But until that day one could fancy the romanticists and realists lambasting each other in ...
— Antwerp to Gallipoli - A Year of the War on Many Fronts—and Behind Them • Arthur Ruhl

... off like rabbuts, and the one I tried to run down dodged me in the dark, and when I heerd him he was close up to the fence t'other side, and got away. Didn't I give it ...
— Brownsmith's Boy - A Romance in a Garden • George Manville Fenn

... a load off your royal conscience. Surely, Sire, if, as I wish, I should find affairs in favorable condition, I would, sparing no labor to myself, strive to serve your Majesty so heartily that none of your Majesty's servants would have the better of me. But everything here is so run down that many years of life and very strong arms are necessary to put affairs into even a reasonable condition. It is only a month since I came to this city of Manila, and so I cannot give your Majesty an account ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume X, 1597-1599 • E. H. Blair

... expect to have every thing to suit me," he said to himself. "And now I hope we sha'n't run down anybody. Hullo! Isn't that a red ...
— Dab Kinzer - A Story of a Growing Boy • William O. Stoddard

... brig!—what have we to do with the brig? Our course is for Key West, unless it might be better to run down before the wind to the Dry Tortugas again, and look for the sloop-of-war. Duty, and perhaps my own safety, tells me to let Captain Mull know what Spike is about with the Swash; and I shall not hesitate a moment about doing it, after all ...
— Jack Tier or The Florida Reef • James Fenimore Cooper

... 'if you can run down So great a man, I really cannot see What you can find to like in Italy; To him we all ...
— The Book of Art for Young People • Agnes Conway

... animal falls into the net, the net-keeper will grip his boar-spear and (41) advance, when he will ply it as I have described; if he escape the net, then after him full cry. In hot, sultry weather the boar may be run down by the hounds and captured. Though a monster in strength, the creature becomes short of breath and will give in from ...
— The Sportsman - On Hunting, A Sportsman's Manual, Commonly Called Cynegeticus • Xenophon

... That such is their genesis and history is as certain as that erosion produced the Chines in the Isle of Wight. From these indubitable cases of erosion—commencing, if necessary, with the small ravines which run down the flanks of the ridges, with their little working navigators at their bottoms—we can proceed, by almost insensible gradations, to the largest valleys of the Alps; and it would perplex the plutonist to fix upon ...
— Fragments of science, V. 1-2 • John Tyndall

... above all things solaced by the prospect which opened on us, in the event of a non-election of a President; in which case, the federal government would have been in the situation of a clock or watch run down. There was no idea of force, nor of any occasion for it. A convention, invited by the republican members of Congress with the virtual President and Vice-President, would have been on the ground in eight weeks, would have repaired ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... that the signal for the line is out, and that I am ahead of the ships 'Louisa' and 'Trident' [which in the order should have been ahead of him]. You would not have me, as the admiral of the fleet, run down as if I were going to engage a single ship. It was Mr. Matthews's misfortune to be prejudiced by not carrying down his force together, which I shall endeavor to avoid." The affair thus became entirely indecisive; the English van was separated from the rear and got the brunt of the fight ...
— The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 • A. T. Mahan

... Telegraph says: "To grow good crops of blackberries the soil should be good and especially deep, for the roots run down wonderfully when possible for them to do so; and as the growing fruit requires its greatest nourishment in the usually dry month of August, it is an advantage to have deep soil for the roots to draw a supply from. A deep, sandy soil will generally grow ...
— Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 1, January 5, 1884. - A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside • Various

... handful," wrote Mr. Wade to Tony Cornish, "and too inconsequent to let my mind be easy about her future. I wish you would run down and dine and sleep at 'The Brambles' some evening soon. Monday is Marguerite's eighteenth birthday. Will you ...
— Roden's Corner • Henry Seton Merriman

... had been formally invited by Mrs. Madison for dinner that evening, and Betty, who had parted from him just seven hours before, restrained an impulse to run down the terrace as his boat made the landing. Emory and Harriet were on the veranda, however, and she managed to look stately and more or less indifferent at the head of the steps. There were pillars and vines on ...
— Senator North • Gertrude Atherton

... replied the doctor, somewhat drily. "I say, Lamotte, you had better run down to my house, and turn in for a couple of hours; you look done up,—and you can't stand much more of this sort of thing. I must go now, to see old Mrs. Grady, ...
— The Diamond Coterie • Lawrence L. Lynch

... and it would not be driven out. She had heard what Gregory had called Sally at the hotel, and the fact that he must have bought his ticket and checked his baggage earlier in the afternoon when there was nobody about, and then had run down with Sally at the last moment, evidently in order to escape observation, ...
— Hawtrey's Deputy • Harold Bindloss

... elements are arranged in the order of their atomic weights, they show a graded advance from one to another equal to successive additions of the same electrical unit charge, thus indicating a real gamut of the elements that we can run up by adding or run down by subtracting the same unit of electrical charge. It is pitiable to have to record that next year this scientific genius was killed in the ill-fated Gallipoli ...
— Q. E. D., or New Light on the Doctrine of Creation • George McCready Price

... of the house, and behave properly. But the very first time Kezia went upstairs, after she and her husband had installed themselves in their room below, there was Tom standing on the landing with his back up lashing his tail, and making a most hideous noise. Most women would have turned round and run down again, or perhaps tumbled over and broken their necks; but Kezia advanced, keeping her eye on Tom, and as he sprang at her, she guessing that he would do so, seized him by the neck and held him at arm's ...
— Owen Hartley; or, Ups and Downs - A Tale of Land and Sea • William H. G. Kingston

... of Gibraltar, at the commencement of this year, were again reduced to great straits by the persevering Spaniards. The supplies which Rodney had thrown in the year before were nearly exhausted; and some vessels which had been accustomed to run down from Minorca and some of the Italian ports were captured by the French and Spanish cruisers. Under these circumstances, one of the first efforts of the campaign was the relief of this important place. ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... the increasing fury of the wind the Saxons spread more sail and succeeded in intercepting the Danes. A desperate fight began, but the Danes in their low, long vessels had all they could do to keep afloat on the waves. Many were run down by the Saxons. The showers of arrows from their lofty poops confused the rowers and slew many. Sweeping along close to them they often broke off the oars and disabled them. Sometimes two or three of the Danish galleys would try to close with a Saxon ship, but the sea was too rough ...
— The Dragon and the Raven - or, The Days of King Alfred • G. A. Henty

... not run along the side where the river was with so great a height, but we could plainly see the market-place and the several streets which run down to the river. In about an hour's time after this first cry all was in confusion; there was little shooting, the execution was all cutting of throats and mere house murders. The resolute garrison, with the brave Baron Falkenberg, fought it out to the last, and were cut in pieces, ...
— Memoirs of a Cavalier • Daniel Defoe

... see," he said, turning to his wife, "how the rain has run down those graves. You know, it's loosened Jim Sloan's stone so, I'm afraid it'll fall against ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1919 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... to the Abruzzi to look after one of the large holdings of the estate, or that he was in Hungary, shooting with distant cousins who had lands there, or that, if the truth must be known, he had a touch of the influenza and would probably run down to Sicily for a change, as soon as he was able to travel. Angela herself had not seen him since she had been a mere child. She remembered that once, when she was at her aunt's, a tall, pale man with a thoughtful face had passed through the room quickly without paying the least ...
— The White Sister • F. Marion Crawford

... and asked for the full story of how Bud had run down and captured the rustlers, saying that the whole cow country owed him a debt, and if they had only known of the capture in time would have let his sheep through ...
— The Free Range • Francis William Sullivan

... on account o' this knowledge partly, and partly on account o' the lazy movements o' them red heathen we've jest seen go over the hill yonder, and the wide trail, and marked trees behind us, that I'm led to opine thar's a tremendous body o' the naked rascals hid in a couple o' ravines, that run down to the river on either side of that ridge, about a mile ahead, who are waiting to take us by surprise. Now I think we'd better do one of two things. Either wait for the reinforcement o' Colonel Logan—who's no doubt on his march by this time to join us—or else divide our party, and ...
— Ella Barnwell - A Historical Romance of Border Life • Emerson Bennett

... give chase, course, dog, hunt, hound; tread on the heels, follow on the heels of, &c. (sequence) 281. rush upon; rush headlong &c. (violence) 173 ride full tilt at, run full tilt at; make a leap at, jump at, snatch at run down; start game. tread a path; take a course, hold- a course; shape one's steps, direct one's steps, bend one's steps, course; play a game; fight one's way, elbow one's way; follow up; take to, take up; go in for; ride one's hobby. Adj. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget

... who live in the Smiling Pool love it dearly, and we don't want to have to leave it, but if the water cannot run down the Laughing Brook, there can be no Smiling Pool, and so we will have to move off to the Big River," concluded Jerry Muskrat. "That is why I tried to ...
— The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat • Thornton W. Burgess

... returned Pathfinder, laughing, "seeing that it has only to fall down hill. Had I said the water went up the mountain, there would have been natur' ag'in it; but we hold it no great matter for water to run down hill—that is, ...
— The Pathfinder - The Inland Sea • James Fenimore Cooper

... that the "Northfleet" was the ill-fated vessel which some years afterwards was run down, while at anchor under Dungeness, by the Spanish steamer "Murillo," when over three hundred lives ...
— Notes by the Way in A Sailor's Life • Arthur E. Knights

... a solemn one. On the manner in which you cross the threshold of married life depends your future happiness. It is not a small matter to lay the first stone of an edifice. A husband's first kiss"—I felt a thrill run down my back—"a husband's first kiss is like the fundamental axiom that serves as a basis for a whole volume. Be prudent, Captain. She is there beyond that wall, the fair young bride, who is awaiting you; her ear on the alert, her neck outstretched, she is listening ...
— Monsieur, Madame and Bebe, Complete • Gustave Droz

... equivocal smile spread itself over Henry's features on hearing this question, which, however, he did not understand; and he immediately began to run down the bank to get ...
— Rollo in Switzerland • Jacob Abbott

... beauty she to sight appears, i. 218. The sun yellowed not in the murk gloom lien, viii. 285. The sword, the sworder and the bloodskin waiting me I sight, ii. 42. The tears of these eyes find easy release v.127. The tears run down his cheeks in double row, iii. 169. "The time of parting" quoth they "draweth nigh," v. 280. The tongue of love from heart bespeaks my sprite, iv. 261. The tongue of Love within my vitals speaketh, viii. ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10 • Richard F. Burton

... half minute she stared at him, her face whitening and the great tears beginning to run down her cheeks. They ran faster and faster. She gave a great sob and then she threw her arms about the old Judge's neck and buried her ...
— From Place to Place • Irvin S. Cobb

... of Grace Thompson from being run over by the big touring car had not shaken Jane's nerve in the least. It had shaken Tommy's only briefly. Tommy, supple and alert, had leaped from the road just in time to avoid being run down by the car. A second's delay on her part would undoubtedly have proved serious if not ...
— The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas • Janet Aldridge

... the doctor told Sally one day. "Mere nerves. Your husband's run down. He's not strong. He's had a shock. As soon as he's well enough he ought to be got away for a holiday. You take him away. About the end of next week, if he makes good progress. ...
— Coquette • Frank Swinnerton

... before the snows. Once at the mission of the Miamis, or the village at the river Chicaqua, I shall be quite safe for the winter, if I decide not to go farther on. Then, in the spring, I make no doubt, I shall be able to trade our furs at the Straits, if I like not the long run down to the Mountain. Thus, you see, I may be with you again sometime ...
— The Mississippi Bubble • Emerson Hough

... the dhraggin fall outside, they all run down stairs and scampered into the palace yard for to circumspect the curiosity; and by the tune they got down, the Waiver had got off the dhraggin's neck, and, running up ...
— Half-Hours with Great Story-Tellers • Various

... You don't often miss. I wish you had been with me, to run down the scoundrel who tried to murder ...
— Out of the Depths - A Romance of Reclamation • Robert Ames Bennet

... to be one John McLean, an old schoolmate of the colonel, and later a comrade-in-arms, though the colonel would never have recognised a rather natty major in his own regiment in this shabby middle-aged man, whose shoes were run down at the heel, whose linen was doubtful, and spotted with tobacco juice. The major talked about the weather, which was cool for the season; about the Civil War, about politics, and about the Negroes, who were very trifling, the major said. While they were talking upon this latter theme, ...
— The Colonel's Dream • Charles W. Chesnutt

... sheep as to follow the same track blindly, and not dare to act on their own hook," replied Bacon. "It's the fashion to run down day-boys, that's all. But it's a beastly shame, and I almost wish West hadn't let ...
— Jack of Both Sides - The Story of a School War • Florence Coombe

... shade, each house where room permits having a garden of its own, with palms and mangoes and coffee-plants and creepers. Of sanitary arrangements there seemed to be none. There is abundance of rain, and the gutters which run down by the footway are flushed almost every day. But they are all open. Dirt of every kind lies about freely, to be washed into them or left to putrify as fate ...
— West Indian Fables by James Anthony Froude Explained by J. J. Thomas • J. J. (John Jacob) Thomas

... do till we can run down a caravan along the Red Sea, carrying petrol to Suakin or Port Sudan. So there's a fighting hope—if we can raise ourselves out of this sand that clings like the devil himself. It's lucky, sir, we jettisoned ...
— The Flying Legion • George Allan England

... speech, sir. They be gone right enough—Adm'ral Buzza in full fig, and a row o' darters in jallishy buff. I sent 'em 'bout their bus'ness. Look 'ee here, sir: ef you'll promise to sit quiet and keep your wits at home, I'll run down to town for a ...
— The Astonishing History of Troy Town • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... looked up, and, much to Kirstie's surprise, with a sigh. "That will do, girl, you read very nicely. Run down and find your supper, and after that the sooner you get to bed the better. We rise early in this house. To-morrow I will put you in ...
— Two Sides of the Face - Midwinter Tales • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... which at first I took to be a portmanteau or a basket; but when I looked more intently I saw that the thing was—David. Then in violent excitement I shouted at the top of my voice and ran towards the boat, pushing my way through the people, but when I had run down to it I was overcome with timidity and began looking about me. Among the people who were crowding about it I recognised Trankvillitatin, the cook Agapit with a boot in his hand, Yushka, Vassily ... the wet ...
— Knock, Knock, Knock and Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev

... you, all in good time; meanwhile, will you put on your hat, and run down to Moxton's ...
— The Golden Dream - Adventures in the Far West • R.M. Ballantyne

... fain would please you, if I knew with what; Tell me, which knave is lawful game, which not? Must great offenders, once escaped the crown, Like royal harts, be never more run down? Admit, your law to spare the knight requires, 30 As beasts of nature may we hunt the 'squires? Suppose I censure—you know what I mean— To save a bishop, may I ...
— The Poetical Works Of Alexander Pope, Vol. 1 • Alexander Pope et al

... full," Elof protested. "The fact is, as I started to run down the stairs I thought I saw Big Ingmar coming toward me, to take the watch. That's how I ...
— Jerusalem • Selma Lagerlof

... them commercially now. The man who will quietly hew to the Jesus-line in business is quite apt to find his income reduced. The bulk of business shrinks. The thermometer is run down below the living point. We kill men by frost now. The blockade system is skilfully used; isolation and insulation from certain circles. ...
— Quiet Talks on John's Gospel • S. D. Gordon

... sins, the sins of Manasseh, how that he built altars for idols in the house of the Lord; he also observed times, used enchantment, had to do with wizards, was a wizard, had his familiar spirits, burned his children in the fire in sacrifice to devils, and made the streets of Jerusalem run down with the blood of innocents. These, thought I, are great sins, sins of a bloody colour; yea, it would turn again upon me: They are none of them of the nature of yours; you have parted with Jesus, you have sold ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... Mayor's was safe and sound. And besides, my lady and y'r 'onours, the famous steak-and-kidney puddin' o' the 'Rising Sun' must be boiled to a bubble or it's dummacked. If one got spiled, the news 'ud run down to Chester and up to London in no time, and the 'Red Lion' 'ud get all my customers. His Grace of Kingston put up at the 'Red Lion' in all innocence until his worship, for old friendship's sake and a bottle of brandy, 'ticed 'im over 'ere to one of my puddin's. 'E started an inch ...
— The Yeoman Adventurer • George W. Gough

... he was right. Port your helm a little, and run down as close as seems safe to that fellow out yonder, until ...
— Wolves of the Sea • Randall Parrish

... attacks of carnivora, and would still be so were the carnivora to increase in size. The large modern carnivora prey upon herbivores of medium or smaller size, which they are active enough to surprise or run down. Carnivora of much larger size would be too slow and heavy in movements to catch small prey, while the larger herbivores by intelligent use of their defensive weapons could still fend them off successfully. In consequence giant carnivores would find no field for action ...
— Dinosaurs - With Special Reference to the American Museum Collections • William Diller Matthew

... hail-stones with the most anxious care, devouring them more eagerly than if they had been the finest comfits. The rain-drops also were caught and saved with the utmost careful attention; for which purpose some hung up sheets tied by the four corners, having a weight in the middle, to make the rain run down there as in a funnel into some vessel placed underneath. Those who had no sheets hung up napkins or other clouts, which when thoroughly wet they wrung or sucked to get the water they had imbibed. Even the water which fell ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VII • Robert Kerr

... objectionable in the extreme. They think foreigners carry whips and sticks only for purposes of assault, and we met a man the other day who had been wearing a watch for years, but was in the habit of never winding it up till it had run down. This we afterwards found out to be quite a common custom among the Chinese, it being generally believed that a watch cannot be wound up whilst going; consequently, many Chinamen keep two always in use, and it ...
— Chinese Sketches • Herbert A. Giles

... "Certainly. Run down to the office, and I shall be with you shortly." Again alone, Maurice opened his trunk. He brought forth a pint flask of brandy, some old handkerchiefs to be used as bandages, and a box of salve he used for bruises when on hunting expeditions. In turning over his clothes his hand came ...
— The Puppet Crown • Harold MacGrath

... the scene that occurred when the Indian's war-axe parted the fair forehead of her mother. She seemed to see the crimson tide run down her neck, her ivory bosom stained, as her parental life-blood ebbed away. She wept long and loud for her fond mother. She lingered round the fatal spot until the sinking sun began to cast her last rays in lengthened shade over the waters of the ...
— The Forest King - Wild Hunter of the Adaca • Hervey Keyes

... thank her, but could not utter a word. Something in his throat seemed to be in the way, and in spite of all his efforts at self-control, great tears began to run down his cheeks. ...
— Paula the Waldensian • Eva Lecomte

... and bad times and all times pass, so here goes. It is correct to begin a good way above him and come down to him. I'm past him; no, there is a long heavy drag under water, I get the point up, he is off like a shot, while I stand in a rather stupid attitude, holding on. If I cannot get out and run down the bank, he has me at his mercy. I do stagger out, somehow, falling on my back, but keeping the point up with my right hand. No bones broken, but surely he is gone! I begin reeling up the line, with a heavy heart, and try ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Volume 102, April 2, 1892 • Various

... uncle stood stock-still, An' watch'd em trotten down the hill; An' when they turn'd off out o' groun' Down into leaene, two tears run down Aunt's feaece; an' uncle, turnen roun', Sigh'd woonce, an' stump'd off wi' his stick, Because did touch en to the quick To peaert wi' ...
— Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect • William Barnes

... have proved themselves so honest on these occasions, and not absconded with the couple of hundred dollars entrusted to them: a fortune for a poor servant. Though it would be ungrateful to run down these men, who exposed themselves to great perils, often travelled the whole distance from Massowah to Magdala at night, and who, I may say, saved us from starvation; still I believe that they acted more ...
— A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia - With Some Account of the Late Emperor Theodore, - His Country and People • Henry Blanc

... shoulders. One was the care of such a large house and family, and the other was the constant necessity of repelling the lover-like hints and suggestions of Hiram Maxwell, who was always ready and willing to overlook his work at Deacon Mason's so that he could run down and see if Mandy wanted him to do anything ...
— Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks - A Picture of New England Home Life • Charles Felton Pidgin

... that, remember that you must run down and go to your friend. Here is nay knife. Use it to cut the cords that tie her. Then you and she must go back toward the rocks where you went down. And when you hear me sing again you are to go down, as quickly as you can, but quietly, and, as soon as you are past the ...
— The Camp Fire Girls at Long Lake - Bessie King in Summer Camp • Jane L. Stewart

... the boys had to dismount and draw to the side of the road until they had passed. If their machine had been in condition, they might have kept ahead by sheer speed, but in its present crippled state they would have been run down. And to be run down by one of those Juggernauts ...
— Army Boys on the Firing Line - or, Holding Back the German Drive • Homer Randall

... business connected with Severndale's paddock. As Nelly ceased reading she glanced up from her letter to find Peggy watching her narrowly. Peggy had also received a letter from Dr. Llewellyn in which he mentioned the fact that Bolivar felt it advisable to run down to Washington. In an instant the whole situation flashed ...
— Peggy Stewart at School • Gabrielle E. Jackson

... acknowledged himself a freethinker and a materialist, a character of rare occurrence in those ages, showing him to be as daring in his opinions as in his pursuits. That the soul of man was like the winding up of a watch, and that when the spring was run down the man died, and the soul was extinct, are still recorded as his expressions. In those days of demoralising ignorance, this open and unhesitating opinion might be the means of creating him many dangerous and deadly enemies, especially amongst the priesthood, ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... crimson gleam on the cold horizon, she now looked as dull and languid as a thaw. As kind Mr. Lindsey led her up the steps of the door, Violet and Peony looked into his face,—their eyes full of tears, which froze before they could run down their cheeks,—and again entreated him not to bring their snow-image into ...
— The Snow-Image - A Childish Miracle • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... help. My old schoolfellow, Arthur Lovell, who is as good a fellow as ever breathed, has been educated for the law, and is now a solicitor. He lives at Shorncliffe with his father, John Lovell, who is also a solicitor, and a man of some standing in the county. I shall run down to Shorncliffe, see my old friend, and get has advice; and if you'll bring Margaret down for a few days' change of air, we'll stop at the dear old Reindeer, where you used to come, mother, when I was ...
— Henry Dunbar - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... among the Cuebas of Central America, refusal being tantamount to rebellion. Schomburgk tells that among the Arawaks, after a Mariquawi dance, so great is their zeal for honorable scars, the blood will run down their swollen calves, and strips of skin and muscle hang from the mangled limbs. Similar practices rendered it necessary for the United States Government to stop some of the ceremonial dances of ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... rivers swell and overflow the adjacent shores, and run down with such continued rapidity, that the water may be tasted fresh at sea at the distance of six or seven miles from the mouths: these overflowings fertilize the banks and adjacent country, and render ...
— The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido - For the Suppression of Piracy • Henry Keppel

... George," said Jim; "but I think it only fair to tell you before you go a step further, that I am engaged to Louisa, and I can't hear her run down by anyone now. So you may as well ...
— Good Luck • L. T. Meade

... started, I heard one gun go off, and my dogs stopped, but not long, for they took a little tack towards where I had placed the strangers. One of them fired, and they dashed back, and circled round way to my left. I run down 'bout a quarter of a mile, and I heard my dogs make a bend like they were coming to me. While I was listening, I heard the bushes breaking still lower down, and started to ...
— David Crockett: His Life and Adventures • John S. C. Abbott

... quite early still and few people were stirring. They saw no one on their arrival except Bella, who was ready to run down and admit them the moment their sleigh-bells were heard. Mother and daughter went to their room, where the fire had been burning all night in readiness for their coming, and where Mrs. Bellairs herself brought them some coffee. Then Lucia lay down and was soon asleep; and Mrs. Costello seeing ...
— A Canadian Heroine, Volume 2 - A Novel • Mrs. Harry Coghill

... again (she wrote probably the worst hand in Christendom), and when he had spelt the ill-formed words once more, he discovered that the blotched and scrawled writing contained a postscript which he had not at first noticed. 'After all, you had better not come here,' it said, 'but I will run down and see you to-morrow. It is far the best and wisest plan, and I must say good-bye. Please expect me by the three o'clock train.' The letter, as usual, had not been posted in time to reach him in the morning, and Toffy realized almost ...
— Peter and Jane - or The Missing Heir • S. (Sarah) Macnaughtan

... run down I tend to be rheumatic," Hirst stated. He bent his wrist back sharply. "I hear little ...
— The Voyage Out • Virginia Woolf

... FRANK,—You often used to invite me to come to India, and I have really at last made up my mind to. I am coming out by next month's boat to stay with you for a time. I have been very much run down in health lately, and my doctor says a sea-voyage and six months in India will be first-rate for me. I hope you have a nice comfortable house and good servants. —Yours ...
— Six Women • Victoria Cross

... "Greg, run down to the landing to relieve Tom, and ask him to hurry up here. We want him, too, to approve our selection or ...
— The High School Boys' Canoe Club • H. Irving Hancock

... such good aim that it struck the toad fairly on the head, who blinked his bright eyes in surprise, and hopped back to his covert. "I am really glad," said he, "to know that you have learned SOMETHING of the regulations. Now, don't say another word about it until I run down to the company quarters and catch a fellow for a bet, who wants to put up money that you can never learn a single sentence of them. Don't say another word, and you can stand in with me ...
— The Red Acorn • John McElroy

... with me this trip. I just run down for a lark to show my folks my ring an' things, an' let 'em see it's really so. He give me considerable jewelry. His First's taste run that way, an' they ...
— Humorous Ghost Stories • Dorothy Scarborough

... but let us go down, and try if we can jump up again." The madman, struck with the idea of a more astonishing leap than that which he had himself proposed, yielded to this new impulse, and his friend rejoiced to see him run down stairs full of a new project ...
— Practical Education, Volume I • Maria Edgeworth

... trotting behind her with his little wagon. In another moment there was a tug at the board. She turned and shook her fist angrily at him; but, without regarding her in the least, he lifted the plank and rested it on the wagon. Then motioning her to hold up the back end, he started on a run down the bank. ...
— Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School • Jessie Graham Flower

... me, when we do wicked things here that offend him: we are preserved to repent and be pardoned." He muses awhile at this; "Well, well," says he, mighty affectionately, "that well; so you I, devil, all wicked, all preserve, repent, God pardon all." Here I was run down again by him to the last degree, and it was a testimony to me, how the mere notions of nature, though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God, and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as ...
— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) • Daniel Defoe

... his foot in getting out. If YOU can trace him, I should think that Toby will have no difficulty. Now run down-stairs, loose the dog, and ...
— The Sign of the Four • Arthur Conan Doyle

... Jake pointed to the graceful elm down by the shore. "Let's run down around that an' ...
— The Unknown Wrestler • H. A. (Hiram Alfred) Cody

... hill. Said Catherine, "I have made my way once up here, I will not go down again; another may run and fetch it back." So she took another cheese and rolled it down. But the cheeses did not come back, so she let a third run down, thinking. "Perhaps they are waiting for company, and do not like to walk alone." As all three stayed away she said, "I do not know what that can mean, but it may perhaps be that the third has not found the way, and has ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... turning of the uterus either forwards or backwards. The opening of the neck of the womb, the os, may also be closed, or practically so, from ulceration, from strong applications, etc. In some cases sterility may be due to severe constitutional disease, when the person is very much run down and so anemic that menstruation stops. Unfortunately this is not always the case, for women even in the last stages of consumption may, and often do, become pregnant. Syphilis unfortunately does not cause sterility; it only causes ...
— Woman - Her Sex and Love Life • William J. Robinson

... thoughts occurred to him, they made big drops of perspiration run down his temples; and then he treated his poor clerk Mechinet like a slave. And that was not all. Although he lived more retired than ever, since this case had begun, many a report reached him from ...
— Within an Inch of His Life • Emile Gaboriau

... days, Johnny got to be so brave, that he was the first to run down to the beach and jump into his Father's arms, and he cried louder than any, "Duck me again," and splashed every body that came near him; and both William and Johnny got so strong, and ate so heartily, and had such great red ...
— Aunt Fanny's Story-Book for Little Boys and Girls • Frances Elizabeth Barrow

... stern. Twenty-three guns followed in regular succession, with an interval of fifteen seconds between each, when the cloud blew off, and our ship lay dressed in her colors all day. At sundown another salute of the same number of guns was fired, and all the flags run down. This we thought was pretty well— a gun every fifteen seconds— for a merchantman with only four guns and a ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana

... slow, but it all 'appened much quicker. We run down our trampo—without o' course informin' Antonio of 'is 'appy destiny —an' inquired of 'er if she had any use for a free and gratis stowaway. Oh, yes? she said she'd be highly grateful, but she seemed a shade puzzled at our generosity, as you might put it, ...
— Traffics and Discoveries • Rudyard Kipling

... two thousand dollars that we'll get out of them, just for looking after their interests. And we'll have our twenty acres apiece of timber—and you've no idea what a tremendous lot of money that will bring, considering the investment. Fred's worked so hard lately that he's all run down and looks miserable. The doctor told him the mountains would do him a world of good. And the professor wants to do something definite and practical—they are filling up the college with student-teachers, willing to teach some certain subject for the instruction ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower

... of many unclean spirits, very bold in the absence of Christ and very shy in His Presence. O how many of these spirits that find an easy habitation in us would make even the swine to rage and run down ...
— The Agony of the Church (1917) • Nikolaj Velimirovic

... terms, the unfortunate condition of men, who are, says he, "always whipt in by the humours of some d—n'd b— or other. I think I was hard run enough by your mother for one man; but after giving her a dodge, here's another b— follows me upon the foil; but curse my jacket if I will be run down in ...
— The History of Tom Jones, a foundling • Henry Fielding

... the way things has run down at his store since Margaret died. She kept things a-runnin' while she was alive." "Yes, she was a ...
— The Fortune Hunter • Louis Joseph Vance

... was blowing in, creating a tumbling, bubbling sea at the mouth; and vessels and boats of all sizes and rigs were dashing here and there, madly and without purpose it seemed to me, but at all events very likely to run down the low narrow craft in which I had ventured to embark. Now and then a man-of-war's boat, with half-a-dozen reckless midshipmen in her, who looked as if they would not have the slightest scruple in sailing over us, would pass within a few inches of the wherry; now a ship's launch with a party of ...
— James Braithwaite, the Supercargo - The Story of his Adventures Ashore and Afloat • W.H.G. Kingston

... "We'll run down and see it soon," said Mr. Linton. "Meanwhile, the lawyers tell me it's a good house, Queen ...
— Captain Jim • Mary Grant Bruce

... to write about. I do not correspond with them," said Rupert, actually colouring a little beneath Hugo's long, satirical gaze. "But I fancy they may think me neglectful. I promised some time ago that I would run down; and I don't see how I can—until November, at the earliest. And, if you are there, you may as well mention the reason for my going to Wales, or, you see, it will ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... hours between these two cities; and with a spirit commendably scientific, had seized on this occasion to put them to the proof. It was a good thing for the old lady; for she passed much leisure time in studying the watch. Once, when prostrated by sickness, she let it run down. It was inscribed on her harmless mind in letters of adamant that the hands of a watch must never be turned backwards; and so it behoved her to lie in wait for the exact moment ere she started it again. When she imagined this was about due, she sought out one of the young second-cabin ...
— Essays of Travel • Robert Louis Stevenson

... sauntered on to Harry Gray's, The ennui of my heart to lighten; His landlady, with, smirk and smile, Said, "he had just run down to Brighton." When home I turned my steps, at last, A tailor—whom to kick were treason— Pressed for his bill;—I hurried ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, September 12, 1841 • Various

... pulpit and reading-desk, a tiny altar under a window filled with dark old-coloured glass, a font, some half-dozen pews, and perhaps a dozen seats for the poor; and also a vestry. The roof is high pitched, and of black old oak, and the three large beams which support it run down to the side walls, and terminate in grotesquely carved faces,—two devils and an angel on one side, two angels and a devil on the other. Such is the church of St Cuthbert at Barchester, of which Mr Harding ...
— The Warden • Anthony Trollope

... none too satisfactory, as the concealing zukin prevented any recognition or description of the features of the assailants. He only knew of the cries of impatience at wounds received, and knew that he had left his mark on his own opponent. How then were they to be run down? The kenshi showed some impatience. Said he to the captain of the tsujiban—"Why truss up this man, even though a tradesman? He has all his own fingers, and the corpse lacks none." He touched the severed finger with his baton. ...
— The Yotsuya Kwaidan or O'Iwa Inari - Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 1 (of 2) • James S. De Benneville

... hour were long past. In the commodious kitchen of Eleanor's former home two old people were sitting in calico valanced rockers, one by either window. The house was a pleasant old colonial structure, now badly run down but still marked with that distinction that only the instincts of aristocracy can ...
— Turn About Eleanor • Ethel M. Kelley

... Sherburne more cheerfully. "The general will get us out of this, and here is where we must cross. The river may run down enough in two or three days to permit of fording. God grant ...
— The Shades of the Wilderness • Joseph A. Altsheler

... as there flickered into his mind the picture of a street-crossing and two absorbed ladies almost run down by a fast horse. "You and she have been talking about it to-day!" he cried. "You were talking about it with her not two hours ago. Do you ...
— The Magnificent Ambersons • Booth Tarkington

... us"—("seem!" whispered Phebe, putting her finger on the word with a pout)—"I can only say we shall be very glad to come to you. You may look for Olly and myself Friday, July 15th, by the P.M. train. Olly isn't really ill, only run down. He is as horrid a little bear as ever. All are well, and started last week for Narragansett Pier. I shall rejoice to get away from the art school and guilds, which keep on even in this intemperate weather, and I shall be glad to see you again, Phebe, my dear," (Phebe looked up triumphantly ...
— Only an Incident • Grace Denio Litchfield

... landscape we passed through I really couldn't say. I had a dreamy sensation of having run down a refugee's dog, and hearing its owner wishing us in warmer climes—as well as the feeling that my blood-stained apron and the agitated white sheet beside me created much curiosity among the drivers and occupants ...
— My Home In The Field of Honor • Frances Wilson Huard

... don't run down the Doctor," Bob said. "You may have more cause to be grateful to ...
— The Story of Sugar • Sara Ware Bassett

... and Zeehan, the latter since become a mineral centre of vast wealth, were the most noteworthy events of the run down the western coast. They were named by Flinders after the two ships of Tasman, as he took them to be the two mountains seen by that navigator on his discovery of ...
— The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders • Ernest Scott

... there is an 8.15 train back from Culham. Mrs. Stuart says we're to lunch in Balliol, run down to Nuneham afterwards, and leave the boats there, to ...
— Miss Bretherton • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... picture-gallery was lined with silk cloth interwoven with fine metallic thread. In some manner two wires had got crossed with this tinsel, which became red-hot, and the whole mass was soon afire. I knew what was the matter, and ordered them to run down and shut off. It had not burst into flame, and died out immediately. Mrs. Vanderbilt became hysterical, and wanted to know where it came from. We told her we had the plant in the cellar, and when she learned we had a boiler there she said she would not ...
— Edison, His Life and Inventions • Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin

... "But how shall we know where it runs to? Who will be able to tell us aught about it?" "Why," said the bailiff, who had advised the stone being carried up again, "this is very easily managed. One of us must stick in the hole [for the millstone, of course, had a hole in the middle], and run down with it." This was agreed to, and one of them, having been chosen for the purpose, thrust his head through the hole, and ran down the hill with the millstone. Now at the bottom of the mountain was a deep fish-pond, into which the stone rolled, and the simpleton with it, so that the ...
— The Book of Noodles - Stories Of Simpletons; Or, Fools And Their Follies • W. A. Clouston

... him to run down to the station and get what telegrams there are for me, and we'll talk as ...
— The Grafters • Francis Lynde

... came to me. If my suspicion were correct, how much did Jane know or guess? Jane had been most strange and reserved. I remembered how she had run down to meet the wretched man that first morning, when we were there; I remembered her voice, rather hurried, saying, 'Arthur! Mother and dad are upstairs. Come in here,' and how she took ...
— Potterism - A Tragi-Farcical Tract • Rose Macaulay

... slaves they owned. They wo'ked the women and men both in the fields and the children too, and when the ole Master thought they was'n't do'n' 'nuf wo'k, he would take his men and strip off their shirts, and lash them with cow-hide whips until you could see the blood run down them poor ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Kentucky Narratives • Works Projects Administration

... ses, "Now, sur, spell 'Ompompynusuk.'" Fretman drawd a long breth and sed it warn't in the book. Marks proved it was by a old preecher who was a settin' by, and old Phil spoke up with power, ses he, "Mr. Fretman, you must spell it, sur." Fretman was a swettin' like a run down filly. He took one ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VIII (of X) • Various

... possible that every man, overpowered by fatigue, had fallen into slumber at such a moment? Could such as Crockett and Bowie and Travis be blind to their danger? Such painful questions raced through Ned's mind. He felt a chill run down his spine. Yet his breath was like fire to ...
— The Texan Scouts - A Story of the Alamo and Goliad • Joseph A. Altsheler

... passed he saw the ballast creep about the ends of the ties, which reached to the edge of the descent, and in places small streams of gravel had run down, leaving hollows round the timber. The harsh jolting indicated the consequences, but he knew that in the West railroads are built as fast as possible and made safe afterwards. For that matter, he had often run risks ...
— The Girl From Keller's - Sadie's Conquest • Harold Bindloss



Words linked to "Run down" :   go after, skim, pall, feed, consume, injure, jade, fatigue, deplete, flow, course, eat up, chase after, run through, eat, use up, track, give chase, pursue, follow up on, wipe out, run, wound, trail, tag, chase, see, act on, rake, dog, weary, examine, tail



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com