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💧 To flow downward 🔎 To investigate 🔋 To use up 🏃 To chase and catch 🚗 To hit with vehicle 📋 To review quickly
to run down

to run down

6 5.5
To hit and pass over a person or animal with a vehicle
  • phrasal verb
  • /rʌn daʊn/
translation icon : atropellar
  • Last night, he accidentally ran down a cyclist while making a turn.
  • a pedestrian was run down
  • run down by a car
  • get run down

Examples

  • I'm pretty damn sure running down a pedestrian is an initiation of force!

    Blog text (1)

  • A person is run down in the street and killed by a vehicle.

    Blog text (20)

  • The child had been run down by their uncle, dead drunk in a new car.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • This after he allegedly tried to run down an officer in a stolen car.

    New Jersey Drive (1995)

  • Earlier today, a 12 year-old Palestinian girl was run down by an Israeli tank at Hebron...

    Half-Life (2008)

  • Caterpillar has been targeted with protests since Rachel Corrie was run down and killed by a Caterpillar bulldozer in Palestine.

    Blog text (7)

  • The driver was arrested for running down a pedestrian at the crosswalk.

  • The dog was run down by the car as its owner attempted to cross the busy road.

Synonyms

to hit
vsto run down
∞ 1.0

To strike someone or something with force

is a specific case where injury or death follows vehicle impact and passing over
to run over
vsto run down
93 3.3

A vehicle drives over a person or animal causing injury

is the same action described with different phrasing
to knock down
vsto run down
93 3.0

Use force to make someone or something fall to the ground

is the same result but caused specifically by a vehicle passing over
to strike down
vsto run down
  • NSFW
6 6.8

Cause someone to fall, become sick, or die suddenly

is death or injury caused by being struck and then passed over by a vehicle

Antonyms

to protect
∞ 1.0

To keep someone or something safe from harm

to rescue
633 1.0

Save someone or something from danger

How Severe

to mow down
  • Offensive
9 8.8
to run down
6 5.5
to knock down
93 3.0
to run into
75 2.3
clip
2 5.6
graze
4 3.4

Surface Forms

run down infinitive
running down present participle
runs down third person singular
ran down past
ran down past participle

Morphology

run + down

The idea of causing something to be brought down by movement is derivable from 'run' (movement) + 'down' (to bring down), so learners could partly infer a physical knocking-down sense. However, the specific sense involving striking and passing over with a vehicle (akin to 'run over') is a more specific usage that is not fully predictable from the parts and may require prior exposure, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Run down comes from the image of a vehicle that 'runs' over someone or something as it goes along the road, passing over them. So it means 'to injure or kill by striking and passing over with a vehicle'.