to run across
43
2.7
- phrasal verb
- /rʌn əˈkrɔs/
:
encontrar por casualidad
- While hiking in the woods, I unexpectedly ran across an old cabin that I had never seen before.
And I was on the air one night and ran across the word Barbados.
- And I was on the air one night and ran across the word Barbados.
- And it turns out that GED ran across these men.
- And I will say that not everybody I've run across has been receptive to this.
- This man has ran across more of the dark arts than maybe anyone.
- I just, I don't recognize he's a spiritual teacher from England and I've run across him.
- I tried to scan through the other night of the things kind of the physical principles that we've run across in this course more than once.
- I see these guys run across armed dudes and I give the heads up to my crew.
- I see these guys run across armed dudes and I get the heads up to my crew.
- And, you know, people that I run across, but I think that, you know, you can fall in in true love more than once.
- Now my take away from today is there are beautiful people all over the world and you never know who you will run across.
- I mean, I have run across people who are very talented and don't have the fire in the belly to be successful.
- This is serendipitous event where you run across a paper and something clicks and you just you know, you, you follow it up.
- I mean, I have run across people who are very talented and don't have the fire in the Valley to be successful.
Examples
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I never ran across anything like this before.
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Actually, I was scanning the obituaries for your name when I ran across the article.
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So, you know, if you run across them, you know, feel free to send them my way.
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I happened to run across it this morning.
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I have run across similar situations.
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I just happened to run across him one day at the Disney studios.
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So how many of you have run across the word ethology?
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We've run across some illegal sexual activity.
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And I will say that not everybody I've run across has been receptive to this.
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It's a good hobby, and you can't never tell when you'll run across a rare old coin.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To discover something while looking or by accident
∞
1.0
To find out about something for the first time, often by chance
442
3.2
To meet someone or find a problem unexpectedly
338
2.7
Meet someone by chance without planning
244
2.6
To find something or someone by chance
155
3.0
To find something while searching or by chance
55
2.2
To meet someone by chance in a public place
50
2.2
To find something or someone by chance
32
3.7
Meet someone by chance
18
6.1
To find something or someone by accident while doing something else
15
4.9
Find a person or thing by chance
7
4.9
To find or think of something by chance
5
3.6
To find something by chance
3
5.1
Find someone or something by accident
To meet someone unexpectedly, often by chance
How Unexpected
43
2.7
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
run + across
The sense 'to find or discover by chance' is partially derivable from combining 'run' (move quickly) with 'across' (from one side to the other): physically 'running across' someone plausibly maps onto encountering them, so a learner can often infer the meaning. However, this is a metaphorical extension typical of English phrasal verbs and not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so it remains only partially transparent for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Run across comes from a simple picture: you are moving, run, and you go across a place, across, and suddenly meet or see something you did not expect. So it means 'to find or discover someone or something by chance'.