Dictionary

run into en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Meanings

1. (literally, qualifier:intransitive but with prepositional object) To enter by running.
   • He ran into the building.
   • Here we were nearly 8 min. early, and was now a matter of spinning out time, as indeed we did—losing 3 min. from Penrith to Carlisle!—in order not to run into Carlisle more than 5 min. early. 1957 August 14, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 568:
2. (qualifier:intransitive but with prepositional object) To collide with.
   • I've sustained some front-end damage after running into a pothole.
   • A "passenger/goods" cock is provided in each cab, by which, when placed in the "goods" position, the normal proportional brake application is slowed down. This is for use when hauling an unbraked or partially braked train, and prevents the unbraked stock from running into the locomotive or braked portion of the train with violence. 1958 September 14, “Swindon's First Main-Line Diesel Locomotive”, in Railway Magazine, page 603:
   • He lost control of the vehicle and ran into a tree.
3. (qualifier:transitive and with prepositional object) To cause to collide with.
   • He lost control of the vehicle and ran it into a tree.
4. (broadly, qualifier:intransitive but with prepositional object) To unexpectedly encounter or meet someone or something (literally or figuratively).
   • Her sister had just turned 18 and recently moved back home after weeks of staying with a friend, and it seemed reasonable that she had run into friends and probably lost track of time. 2026 August 6, Nicholas Muhoro, “An Ohio Teen Vanished During a One-Mile Drive in 1994. Her Locked Car Was Found Hours Later”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2026:
   • I ran into your cousin the other day.
   • Japan's revolutionary New Tokaido Line, the 310-mile, 150 m.p.h. route between Tokyo and Osaka that is due to open for passenger traffic in October, has run into the same kind of budgetary trouble that held up our own LMR electrification, though the Japanese Government, unlike our own, has apparently gritted its teeth and allowed the project to go ahead to planned completion. 1964 July, “Tokaido line trouble”, in Modern Railways, page 52:
   • Everything was going according to plan until we ran into the legal problems.
5. (dated, of flowing water, qualifier:intransitive but with prepositional object) To reach, to flow into (a body of water).
   • 1849, Charles Anthon, A System of Ancient and Mediæval Geography, for the Use of Schools and Colleges, Harper & Brothers, Publishers (1871), page 58, Œāso, on the coast, at the northern extremity of the Pyrenees, where the River Magrăda, now Urumea, runs into the sea.
6. (qualifier:intransitive but with prepositional object) To blend into; to be followed by or adjacent to without there being a clear boundary.
   • 2003, Julie M. Crandall and Mary Helen Brown, "The Millennium Waltz: A Story in Three-Quarter Time", Chapter 18 in Robin Patric Clair (ed.), Expressions of Ethnography: Novel Approaches to Qualitative Methods, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 189, Of course, a show might start at a certain time, and one must place bets at the sports book at the right time, but for the most part, day runs into night and night runs into day without notice or comment.
7. (qualifier:transitive and with prepositional object) To cause to blend into.
   • You can use the paintbrush this way to run the colors into each other.
8. To reach a large figure.
   • By the end, the cost of the project ran into the millions of dollars.
9. (transitive) To amount to.
   • debts running into millions

Forms

Deriveds

run into the ground

Translations (27)

nn treffe (to encounter or meet) · de jemandem über den Weg laufen (to encounter or meet) · pl najeżdżać (to collide with) · pt topar (to encounter or meet) · es darse de bruces con (to encounter or meet) · ru вбежа́ть (to enter by running) · no kjøre på en (to collide with) · nb støte på (to encounter or meet) · ru нае́хать (to collide with) · ru вбега́ть (to enter by running) · de auf jemanden/etwas stoßen (to encounter or meet) · es darse de bruces con (to collide with) · es dar de bruces con (to collide with) · es tropezarse / trompezarse con (to encounter or meet) · es toparse con (to encounter or meet) · nn støyte på (to encounter or meet) · sv stöta på (to encounter or meet) · pt dar de cara (to encounter or meet) · pl najechać (to collide with) · es dar de bruces con (to encounter or meet) · es hacer tropezar / trompezar (to cause to collide with) · got 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐍉𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (to encounter or meet) · nb treffe (to encounter or meet) · eo renkonti (to encounter or meet) · ro da de (to encounter or meet) · bg срещам (to encounter or meet) · ru наезжа́ть (to collide with)