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ran out; run out; running out; runs out
Definition of run out
1a : to come to an end : expire time ran out
b : to become exhausted or used up
the gasoline ran out
2 : to jut out
1a : to finish out (a course, a series, a contest, etc.) : complete
b of a baseball batter : to run hard to first base after hitting (a batted ball)
ran out the grounder
2a : to fill out (a typeset line) with quads, leaders, or ornaments
b : to set (a line of text, such as the first line of a paragraph) with a hanging indention
3 : to exhaust (oneself) in running
4 : to cause to leave by force or coercion : expel
Examples of run out in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web An officer was on Coventry Road as the suspects ran out the door and a store manager pointed out to the officer the car which the suspects entered.
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cleveland, "Woman arrested for regularly hitting her son, 11: Cleveland Heights police blotter," 23 Nov. 2019 If all of your free trials have run out, Sling is the cheapest way to watch Pac-12 Network and more college games without signing up with a traditional cable provider this football season.
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oregonlive, "Oregon State Beavers at Washington State football: Live updates, score, TV channel, odds, how to watch live stream online," 23 Nov. 2019 Towson got a bit of a lift heading to the locker room as Jakigh Dottin made about a 35-footer as time ran out to draw his team to 31-20 at the break.
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Baltimore Sun Staff, baltimoresun.com, "No. 18 Xavier men’s basketball pulls away from Towson, 73-51, in Charleston Classic," 21 Nov. 2019 Plus, when the water tank runs out, the humidifier automatically shuts off.
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Braelyn Wood, Health.com, "The Best-Selling Pure Enrichment Humidifier on Amazon Will Save Your Dry Skin This Winter," 21 Nov. 2019 The second reason for temporariness is that once the patent runs out, people who want to use it in the market, or critically, innovate and build on top of it, no longer need to ask for the permission of the original inventor.
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K.n.c., The Economist, "The value of freeing ideas, not just locking them up," 8 Nov. 2019 The third concussion came months later, in another Intangibles game, the clock running out on a late-night midseason loss.
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Krista Stevens, Longreads, "What Hockey Gives and What Hockey Takes Away," 8 Nov. 2019 The third concussion came months later, in another Intangibles game, the clock running out on a late-night midseason loss.
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Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, "My Year of Concussions," 4 Nov. 2019 Five defendants received probation and a judge tossed the final case because the statute of limitations had run out.
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USA Today, "The Pulse nightclub shooting and other G4S scandals," 31 Oct. 2019
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'run out.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Time Traveler for run out
The first known use of run out was in the 14th century
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