runs

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of run.

   He runs a small bakery on the corner of Main Street.

   The old engine still runs smoothly after all these years.

   Note

   Whether an object follows decides which verb you are reading. She runs is motion alone. She runs the course takes a distance as its object, and he runs the mile in four minutes takes a time. With a smooth-moving subject the meaning becomes gliding or sweeping: the engine runs, the river runs. The form suits habits and general truths, such as she runs every morning. An action happening right now usually takes is running.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of run.

   The away team added three runs before the rain delay halted play.

   Her early-morning runs along the river keep her in shape.

   Note

   The ordinary count noun, made plural with -s: a week of errands and quick runs to the shop, a few pleasure trips, the seasonal runs of fish heading upriver to spawn. A run of fish is already a group, so runs here means several migrations or groups, not several fish. The same spelling serves as the verb's present-tense form, and its place in the sentence tells you whether it names things or actions.

3. 3
   nounslangpluralwith the

   An informal name for diarrhea, especially a bout of frequent, loose bowel movements.

   By the second day in the village, the whole tour group had the runs.

   She blamed the questionable street food for giving her the runs all weekend.

   Similardiarrhea, trots

   Oppositeconstipation

   Note

   Slang that lives almost entirely in the phrase have the runs. The word is plural-only, so no one has a single run of this kind. The name is usually traced to the sufferer's frequent dash to a toilet, and sometimes to the runny stool itself. The article can drop: Joseph A. Petak's Never Plan Tomorrow (1991) has "a bad case of runs." Its blunter synonym is the shits.

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