Other forms: run-ins
A run-in is an unpleasant clash with somebody, often somebody in authority. An argument that left a mark.
It takes with, so a run-in with the police, with a neighbour or with a boss. The phrase implies a single encounter rather than an ongoing feud, and it usually suggests the other party had the upper hand. There is a completely separate sporting sense, since the run-in is the closing stretch of a season, and a team's run-in is the fixtures they have left.
1nounrun-inAn unpleasant confrontation with somebody.
“He had a run-in with a traffic warden that morning.”
Derived from the verb run into. For the meaning "end-phase", it presumably comes a marathon race, where in the final part the runners run into the stadium and complete a lap.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 22 of A Man Called Ove.
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