to run aground
10
6.7
- phrasal verb
- /rʌn əˈɡraʊnd/
:
encallar
- There were civilian sea captains killed far from home when their ships ran aground on the reef.
- ship ran aground
- boat is run aground
Examples
-
I wouldn't want my ship to run aground either.
-
His ship had run aground on an island way west of Sumatra.
-
We're going to run aground, captain.
-
The ship will run aground.
-
I ran aground here a few years ago and decided to make it home.
-
You know, Captain Cook ran aground in these waters.
-
And in the case of a ship that has run aground, repairs must be made first.
Blog text (31) -
The ship can't go any further... as the shallow depths would... cause it to run aground.
-
Their four-month voyage ended when the ship ran aground in the night off Rockaway Peninsula in June.
Academic text (1993) -
Last night, a Chinese freighter ran aground off the Jeb Island Sound.
Synonyms
141
6.7
To leave a person or vehicle stuck somewhere without help
27
3.4
To put something into the soil so it stays stable
17
5.4
To end up on land at the shore, often a ship or whale
Antonyms
How Stuck
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from the motion verb 'run' plus 'aground' (resting on the bottom): a vessel 'runs aground' by moving into the state of being aground, so the overall sense of becoming stuck on shore is compositional. This follows a common motion-into-result pattern found in many languages and does not involve a highly metaphorical or unpredictable shift, so learners who know both constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
Run aground comes from boats: when a boat runs onto the shore or into very shallow water and becomes aground, it hits the bottom and cannot move. That's why it means 'to be stuck'.