Other forms: outran, outrunning, outruns
To outrun is to run faster or further than somebody. Outrun the police, cannot outrun it, outrun the field.
It takes a direct object with no preposition. Figuratively it means to get ahead of something — outrun the competition, outrun your resources — and you cannot outrun a bad diet is a fixed phrase in fitness writing meaning exercise will not compensate. Note the past tense outran and the participle outrun, which are different from each other.
1verboutrunTo run faster or further than somebody.
“The thief tried to outrun the police but was caught at the corner.”
2verbaheadTo get ahead of something.
“His ambition outran his talent, and the business soon failed.”
outrun is an overtaking.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃er-
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃reyH- — to boil, churn
Proto-Germanic
*rinnaną — to run
Old Norse
rinna — to run
Old English
rinnan
Middle English
runnen
English
run
English, today
outrun
Built from
From out- + run. run comes from Middle English runnen, rennen (“to run”), alteration (due to the past participle runne, runnen, yronne) of Middle English rinnen (“to run”), from Old English rinnan, iernan (“to run”) and Old Norse rinna (“to run”), both from Proto-Germanic rinnaną (“to run”), from Proto-Indo-European h₃reyH- (“to boil, churn”). Cognate with Scots rin (“to run”), West Frisian rinne (“to walk, march”), archaic Dutch rinnen (“to flow”, still in geronnen), German rinnen (“to flow”), Swedish rinna (“to flow”), and Icelandic renna (“to flow”). From the causative rannijaną (“to make run”) are Dutch rennen, German rennen, Danish rende, Swedish ränna (all “to run”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian rend (“to run, run after”), Persian راندن (“to move, set in motion”). See also random.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA