RUN INTO

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does run into mean? 

• RUN INTO (verb)
  The verb RUN INTO has 4 senses:

1. be beset by

2. collide violently with an obstacle

3. hit against; come into sudden contact with

4. come together

  Familiarity information: RUN INTO used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RUN INTO (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be beset by

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

encounter; run into

Context example:

The project ran into numerous financial difficulties

Hypernyms (to "run into" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Collide violently with an obstacle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

bump into; butt against; jar against; knock against; run into

Context example:

I ran into the telephone pole

Hypernyms (to "run into" is one way to...):

collide with; hit; impinge on; run into; strike (hit against; come into sudden contact with)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Hit against; come into sudden contact with

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

collide with; hit; impinge on; run into; strike

Context example:

He struck the table with his elbow

Hypernyms (to "run into" is one way to...):

touch (make physical contact with, come in contact with)

Verb group:

strike (deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "run into"):

stub (strike (one's toe) accidentally against an object)

ping (hit with a pinging noise)

bang; spang (leap, jerk, bang)

rear-end (collide with the rear end of)

broadside (collide with the broad side of)

connect (land on or hit solidly)

spat (strike with a sound like that of falling rain)

thud (strike with a dull sound)

bottom (strike the ground, as with a ship's bottom)

bottom out (hit the ground)

bump; knock (knock against with force or violence)

bump into; butt against; jar against; knock against; run into (collide violently with an obstacle)

clash; collide (crash together with violent impact)

glance (hit at an angle)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

The car run intos the tree

Sense 4

Meaning:

Come together

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

come across; encounter; meet; run across; run into; see

Context example:

How nice to see you again!

Verb group:

assemble; foregather; forgather; gather; meet (collect in one place)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "run into"):

cross; intersect (meet at a point)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

“She has been an angel, mother,” returned Steerforth, “for a little while; and has run into the opposite extreme, since, by way of compensation.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Meanwhile, I will run into the cellar, and take a drink.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Of course, my first act was to run into the waiting-room.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She was obliged to break off from these very pleasant observations, which were otherwise of a sort to run into great length, by the eagerness of Harriet's wondering questions.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Choose an elegant restaurant where you won’t likely run into friends or neighbors.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Toto had run into the crowd to bark at a kitten, and Dorothy at last found him.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Down town he stopped off long enough to run into the library and search for Saleeby's books.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Poor Janet has been sadly taken in, and yet there was nothing improper on her side: she did not run into the match inconsiderately; there was no want of foresight.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

While many applications require increasingly small lasers, researchers continually run into the same roadblock: Nanolasers tend to be much less efficient than their macroscopic counterparts.

(Tiny, biocompatible laser could function inside living tissues, National Science Foundation)

You are aware—or probably, in this half-educated age, you are not aware—that the country round some parts of the Amazon is still only partially explored, and that a great number of tributaries, some of them entirely uncharted, run into the main river.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)