run the rule over
To examine or assess something carefully
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Where will you be? Anywhere UK & IrelandUnited StatesOnline slangBusiness jargon
run through
to review or explain something quickly
run to
reach or exceed a certain amount or level
run to earth
To find or discover something after a search
run up
to increase or accumulate something quickly
run wild
to behave or grow without control
run with
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
run with scissors
to act recklessly or take unnecessary risks
run with the hare and hunt with the hounds
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
run-in
To lock up in the station-house. The police are very fond of threatening to RUN-IN any person to whom they may take exception, and, as recent revelations have shown, are by no means averse from putting their threats into execution.
Runcible Spoon
The plate and cutlery trades have no knowledge of- this utensil, which is mentioned in.
runners and riders
Participants or contenders in a situation or competition
running at rovers
Running wild; being without restraint. Row (rou), A disturbance, noise, or tumult is late 18th-century slang; the origin of the word is unknown.
running footmen
Men servants in the early part of the 18th century, when no great house was complete without some half-dozen of them. Their duty was to run beside the fat Flemish mares of the period, and advise the innkeeper of the coming guests. The pole which they carried was to help the cumbrous coach out of the numerous sloughs. It is said that the notorious "Old Q" was the last to employ running footmen.
running patterer
A street seller who runs or moves briskly along, calling aloud his wares.
running smobble
Snatching goods off a counter, and throwing them to an accomplice, who brushes off with them.
running start
a head start or initial advantage
running stationers
Hawker of newspapers, trials, and dying speeches.
running target
A goal or objective that is constantly changing
Running the Hood
It is said that an old lady was passing over Haxey Hill, when the wind blew away her hood. Some boys began tossing it from one to the other, and the old lady so enjoyed the fun that she bequeathed thirteen acres of land, that thirteen candidates might be induced to renew the sport on the 6th of every January.
Running Thursday
December 13th, 1688, two days after the flight of James II. A rumour ran that the French and Irish Papists had landed; a terrible panic ensued, and the people betook themselves to the country, running for their lives.
running water
No enchantment can subsist in a living stream; if, therefore, a person can interpose a brook betwixt himself and the witches, sprites, or goblins chasing him, he is in perfect safety. Burns's tale of Tarn a? Shanter turns upon this superstition.
runt
A short squat man or woman: from the small cattle called Welsh runts.
runt of the litter
The smallest or weakest member of a group
Rupert of Debate
Edward Geoffrey, four- teenth Earl of Derby (1799-1869). It was when he was Mr. Stanley, and the opponent of Daniel O'Connell, that Lord Lytton so de- scribed him, in allusion to the brilliant Royalist cavalry leader, Prince Rupert.
Rupert Prince Rupert's drops
Bubbles made by dropping molten glass into water. Their fonn! is that 'of a tadpole, and if the smallest portion of -the "t&il" is nipped off, the whole flies into fine dust with explosive violence.
Ruptured Duck
The nickname in World War II for the American ex-service lapel button issued to all demobilized from the forces.
rush
To come upon suddenly, generally for the purpose of borrowing. To "give a man the RUSH," is to spunge upon him all day, and then borrow money at the finish, or pursue some such similar mode of procedure.
rush hour
The busy period when many people travel to or from work
rush in
Act impulsively without thinking
rush one's fences
To act too hastily or impulsively
rush to judgement
To form an opinion or make a decision too quickly
Rush-bearing Sunday
A Sunday, generally near the time of the festival of the saint to whom the church is dedicated, when anciently it was customary to renew the rushes with which the church floor was strewn. The fes- tival is still observed at Ambleside, Westmor- land, on the last Sunday in July, the church being dedicated to St. Anne, whose day is July 26th.
rushers
Thieves who knock at the doors of great houses in London, in summer time, when the families are gone out of town, and on the door being opened by a woman, rush in and rob the house; also housebreakers who enter lone houses by force.
RuSSia
Russia.
Russia Leather
A fine leather of a smooth tex- ture, originally produced in Russia. It is the result of tanning and dyeing (usually of a red colour) by a particular process and the dis- tinctive smell comes from the distillation of birch bark used in the manufacture.
Russia under the old Empire
Theoretically it had large powers and was democratic; but it was always under the thumb of the great landowners, and all its decrees were subject to the approval of the Governor.
RuSSian
Russian.
russian coffee-house
The Brown Bear in Bow-street, Covent Garden, a house of call for thief-takers and runners of the Bow street justices.
russian invasion
Colloquially known as "Displaced persons" since their rehabilitation presented such appalling problems to the soldiers first charged with the task.
Russian roulette
Taking a risky and potentially disastrous action
Russians and Austnans
The Emperors of the three Empires were all present in person.
rust
"to nab the RUST," to take offence. RUSTY, cross, ill-tempered, morose; not able to go through life like a person of easy and "polished" manners.
rustication
The sending of an offender from the University for one term or more, thus hindering his qualifying for a degree.
rustle up
to gather or find something, especially food, quickly and with effort
rusty
Out of use, To nab the rust; to be refractory; properly applied to a restive horse, and figuratively to the human species. To ride rusty; to be sullen; called also to ride grub.
rusty guts
A blunt surly fellow: a jocular misnomer of RESTICUS.
rusty sheriff's badge
The anus.
rutat
Or RATTAT, a "tatur," or potato.
rutter
The penis.
rutting
Copulating. Rutting time; the season, when deer go to rut.
rye
Gipsy term for a young man. In the same parlance "rawnie" is a young woman.
Rye-house Plot
A conspiracy in 1683 for the assassination of Charles II and his brother James on their way from Newmarket, hatched at the Rye House Farm, in Hertfordshire. As the house in which the king was lodging acci- dentally caught fire, the royal party left eight days sooner than they had intended, and the plot miscarried. Lord William Russell and Algernon Sidney were among those executed for complicity.
Ryence of Wales
She is the personification of chastity and purity; encounters the "savage, fierce bandit and mountaineer" without injury, and is assailed by "hag and unlaid ghost, goblin, and swart fairy of the mine," but "dashes their brute violence into sudden adoration and blank awe." She finally marries Artegall.
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