to run bases
5
3.4
- phrasal verb
- /rʌn ˈbeɪsɪz/
- Specialized
- After hitting the ball, he sprinted to run bases and reach home plate before the catcher could tag him out.
Examples
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She practiced hard to learn how to run bases efficiently, knowing it was crucial for scoring runs.
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Hakuryu does not run bases with all-or-nothing gambles like you did.
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Day in and day out, they've trained how to run bases and accurately assess the situation.
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The chance to squint at a sky so blue it hurts your eyes to look at it, to feel the tingle in your arms as you connect with the ball, run bases, stretching a double into a triple and flop face first into third, wrap your arms around the bag.
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During the game, the coach encouraged the players to run bases quickly after they made contact with the pitch.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'run' (to move quickly on foot) with 'bases' (the four stations in baseball): it naturally denotes running around the bases. This compositional pattern is straightforward and follows ordinary English verb + object semantics, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words (and basic baseball vocabulary) will understand the MWE.
Etymology
Run bases comes from baseball: after hitting the ball a player must run around the four bases, first, second, third and home, to 'score'. That clear image of moving quickly around the bases is why the phrase means to advance by running all the way around and reach home.