RUNS AWAY Synonyms: 82 Similar and Opposite Words

runs away

verb

present tense third-person singular of run away

as in escapes

to get free from a dangerous or confining situation ran away from an unhappy marriage

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in retreats

to hasten away from something dangerous or frightening the child runs away from large dogs

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of runs away Musically gifted teenager Rokas, runs away from his mafia family to use music as a way to take revenge on his father, responsible for his mother’s death. — Annika Pham, Variety, 19 Oct. 2026 When Carla and Johnny get there, Gabe literally runs away from them, but Johnny tackles him. — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2026 And when the guy is maybe 20 meters away, the cameraman packs up the camera and runs away. — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 9 July 2026 The title refers to a story-fable about a horse that runs away, only to turn up at a time of crisis. — Hillel Italie, Fortune, 1 June 2026 Garcia runs away screaming toward a third officer and drops the stick before he’s pushed down into a bed of bushes growing along the street curb. — Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times, 23 Apr. 2026 Best gets out of the vehicle, then runs away with police chasing after him. — Dave Collins, Hartford Courant, 12 Mar. 2026 In this delightfully science-minded historical fiction novel, one of the main characters runs away from her family to do astronomy while the other clocks up multiple major scientific expeditions under her belt. — Brianne Kane, Scientific American, 13 Feb. 2026 In this fluffy romance novel, burnt out pop star Amelia Rose runs away in the middle of the night to the Hallmark-worthy town of Rome. — Amanda Favazza, Southern Living, 6 Feb. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for runs away

Verb

As the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics explains, energy confinement time describes how quickly thermal energy escapes from the plasma, rather than how long an experiment runs.

— Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 31 Oct. 2026
The host enters the water, where the worm escapes from its body and begins the next stage of its life cycle.

— Tara Deans, The Conversation, 30 Oct. 2026

Definition of escapes

Verb

Retreats from early-childhood care The Goldwyn closure comes as another major Los Angeles institution retreats from providing care.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2026
Meanwhile, Mercury stations retrograde in Scorpio and Venus retreats into Libra, joining Saturn retrograde in Aries, Uranus in Gemini, and Neptune in Aries.

— Lisa Stardust, Vogue, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of retreats

Verb

Jaros and Rauh calculate that the state will lose money so long as 24 percent of the tax base flees, a condition that’s already been met.

— Ramesh Ponnuru, Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2026
Moss flees across the Mexican border, hiding the money along the bank of the Rio Grande before winding up in a Mexican hospital.

— Frannie Comstock, Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of flees

Verb

The next big test will be the demonstration flight of a Long March 10A rocket, which flies with a single core booster, and China’s new Mengzhou Moon ship to low-Earth orbit in early 2027.

— Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 6 Nov. 2026
But in a town of heavyweight food and beverage brands from Chick-fil-A to Coca-Cola, Chicken Salad Chick still flies a bit under the radar, said its chief executive.

— Amy Wenk, AJC.com, 3 Nov. 2026

Definition of flies

Verb

Shadab completed his century by playing a late cut off Atkinson for his 12th boundary before hitting the fast bowler over long off for a six to reduce the target to three runs off the final three overs.

— ABC News, ABC News, 25 Oct. 2026
It's pulled this off by ditching the bulky battery that every other vest comes with, and runs off power from your phone instead.

— New Atlas, New Atlas, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of runs off

Verb

Hudson runs House Republicans’ campaign arm and was projected to keep his seat leading into Election Day.

— David Sivak, The Washington Examiner, 4 Nov. 2026
Musk, who runs both firms, was poised to become one of the biggest beneficiaries of Republican victories and spent hundreds of millions of dollars in support of GOP candidates.

— Steve Kopack, NBC news, 4 Nov. 2026

Definition of runs

Verb

Then, the unit bolts to the van, becoming a secure load that happens to contain a full living suite.

— New Atlas, New Atlas, 20 Aug. 2026
When a company bolts AI on without building it into the way the company works, the company can end up paying a great deal of money for a capability its competitors already share.

— Mohamed Khater, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2026

Definition of bolts

Browse Nearby Words

runs amok

runs away

runs by

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“Runs away.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/runs%20away. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of runs away

verb

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