run to earth
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To find or discover something after a search
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
tìm thấy hoặc phát hiện thứ gì sau khi tìm kiếm
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: chase to the ground
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The detectives finally ran the suspect to earth in a small town
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “run to earth” mean?
To find or discover something after a search Literally: chase to the ground
Is “run to earth” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.