run out

verb

ran out; run out; running out; runs out

intransitive verb

1

a

: to come to an end : expire

time ran out

b

: to become exhausted or used up

the gasoline ran out

2

: to jut out

transitive verb

1

a

: to finish out (a course, a series, a contest, etc.) : complete

b

of a baseball batter : to run hard to first base after hitting (a batted ball)

ran out the grounder

2

a

: to fill out (a typeset line) with quads, leaders, or ornaments

b

: to set (a line of text, such as the first line of a paragraph) with a hanging indention

3

: to exhaust (oneself) in running

4

: to cause to leave by force or coercion : expel

Phrases

run out of

: to use up the available supply of

ran out of time

run out on

: desert

Examples of run out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Pete has a pretty good head start, but his dehydrated horse runs out of gas, stumbles, and crashes to the ground. —Matt Cabral, EW.com, 23 Mar. 2025

At the end of 2025, Manchester United would have run out of cash. —Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes, 23 Mar. 2025

However, the rally ran out of steam and investors scattered to the sidelines, allowing stocks to drift lower and attention to return to President Donald Trump's tariff threats and potential effects on the economy. —Medora Lee, USA TODAY, 22 Mar. 2025

The company has to go through this process to figure things out, but the company just ran out of time to do it the long way. —Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 21 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1a

Rhymes for run out

• about
• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout
• checkout
• closeout
• cutout
• devout
• dropout

Kids Definition

run out

verb

1

: to come to an end : expire

time ran out before we could tie the game

2

: to become exhausted or used up

our supplies were running out