d. 1400. Chaucer, Rom. of Rose. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 400. There are . . . run down his fame, valour (in the new sense of worth) . . .].
c. 1500. Dunbar [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 363. Among the verbs are run down a man, take thy choice . . .].
1577. Harrison, Description of England. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 595. The verb run is applied in a new sense; a range of hills runs in a certain direction.]
1605. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 6. So of the rest till we have quite run through, And wearied all the fables of the gods. Ibid. (1601). Poetaster, ii. 1. These courtiers run in my mind still.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, 196. And because these praiers are very many, therefore they run them ouer.
c. 1617. Howell, Letters, I. v. 7. Jack Stanford would have run at him, but was kept off by Mr. Nicholas.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2, 11. That first run all religion down.
1694. Penn, Rise and Prog. of Quakers, v. Some . . . who, through prejudice or mistake, ran against him.
1705. Farquhar, Twin Rivals, Pref. One reason that the galleries were so thin during the run of this play.
1709. Steele, Tatler, 27. His desires ran away with him.
1710-3. Swift, Stella [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 150. A book has a run like the old course; there is also a run of ill weather.]
1711. Spectator, 262. I run over in my mind all the eminent persons in the nation. Ibid. (1712), 390. This creature, if not in any of their little cabals, is run down for the most censorious dangerous body in the world. Ibid. (1714), 592. Several of them lay it down as a maxim, that whatever dramatic performance has a long run, must of necessity be good for nothing; as though the first precept in poetry were not to please.
1726. Pope, Dunciad, i. 113. Now (shame to Fortune) an ill run at play Blank'd his bold visage.
1736. Fielding, Pasquin, i. I read your comedy over last night . . . if it runs as long as it deserves, you will engross the whole season to yourself.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, xlvii. I would not have you run your head precipitately into a noose.
1812. Austen, Pride and Prejudice, liii. I will not spend my hours in running after my neighbours.
1837. Dickens, Pickwick, x. You have run off with this lady for the sake of her money. Ibid. (1843), Martin Chuzzlewit, xxx. I think of giving her a run in London for a change. Ibid. (1846), Cricket on Hearth, i. 'Busy . . . Caleb?' 'Pretty well, John. . . . There's rather a run on Noah's Arks at present.'
1847. Porter, Quarter Race, 23. I would not advise any man to try to run over me.
1848. Ruxton, Far West, 103. From the run of the hills, there must be plenty of water.
c. 1854. Macaulay, Montgomery's Poems. The publications which have had a run during the last few years.
c. 1860. Music Hall Song, 'Drink under the Licensing Act.' It maybe your fate, If not walking quite straight, By blue Guardians to be run in.
1861. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, xxxvii. If any . . . burglar had [cracked] that particular crib . . . and got clear off with the swag he . . . might have been run . . . for Congress in a year or two.
1861. Times, 23 July. Is there such a thing as a run in calamity? Misfortunes, they say, never come single.
1864. Laurence, Guy Livingstone, xii. Livingstone headed the list, though Fallowfield ran him hard.
1865. Kingsley, Hillyars & Burtons, lix. He might have his run swept by fire . . . and be forced to hurry his sheep down to the boiling house.
1866. Eliot, Felix Holt, xx. There was a great run on Gottleb's bank in '16. Ibid., xxv. For a man who had long ago run through his own money, servitude in a great family was the best kind of retirement after that of a pensioner.
1869. Stowe, Oldtown, 29. She had the in and out of the Sullivan house, and kind o' kept the run o' how things went and came into it.
1877. North Am. Rev., July, 5. They assumed the functions of all offices, including the courts of justice, and in many places they even run the churches.
1879. Howells, Lady of the Aroostook, vii. "Every novelist runs a blonde heroine; I wonder why."
