to run amok
20
7.5
- phrasal verb
- /rʌn əˈmɑk/
:
descontrolarse
- The children ran amok in the park, creating chaos as they played tag.
We already know, like I said, that narcissism is ego run amok.
- We already know, like I said, that narcissism is ego run amok.
- Otherwise therapy just becomes one more place where the entitlement runs amok.
- And so now everybody's running amok.
- That's just cyber criminality run amok.
- The untold number of bodies that stacked up as a result of utopian ideas run amok is absolutely staggering.
- People do not run amok if they're given that sort of sense.
- But if if allowed to run amok, it can obviously feel like a defect.
- Like that's not when people say like, oh, cancel culture run amok.
Examples
-
The untold number of bodies that stacked up as a result of utopian ideas run amok is absolutely staggering.
-
I laid out my mat and pillow, and they started running amok, back and forth between beds.
Blog text (13) -
Wild animals running amok in suburban Virginia.
-
For a while, I watched the children running amok in the corridor.
Fiction book (1998) -
Is this how you go through life, just running amok and trampling anyone in your path?
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Or was it implemented to prevent unruly children from running amok in the library?
Blog text (16) -
A man's dignity is the one thing that holds him back from running amok.
-
Edmund was running amok, and now it would be war to the knife with the Welsh.
Fiction book (1999) -
She's running amok and we don't know what to do about it.
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Torturers, war profiteers, and financial brigands are still running amok at the highest levels of society.
Blog text (32)
Synonyms
33
3.9
Act without control or limits
27
7.7
To become very angry and act out of control
15
5.7
To spread quickly, get out of control, and cause harm
7
4.1
To make a place or situation very messy and confused
2
5.8
Behave in a wild way without control
2
9.9
To become very angry and act in a wild, out of control way
1
7.5
To act violently and destroy things without control
Antonyms
How Wild
Surface Forms
Morphology
run + amok
The meaning is directly compositional: 'run' (to move quickly) combined with 'amok' (acting violently/without restraint) yields 'to run in a violent, uncontrolled way'. This verb+adverb pattern is a standard English composition and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Run amok comes from an old Malay word amok, which described a person suddenly running into a crowd and attacking wildly. So, because of that violent picture, run amok now means 'to behave in a wild, out-of-control way'.