Learn English: 18 Idioms & Expressions with “RUN”

Hi folks. Welcome back to engVid with me, your teacher for today, Benjamin. We are looking

in today's lesson at idioms with the verb "to run". Now, idioms are useful because

they help to make your range of expression more interesting, and you can punctuate your

speech with the occasional idiom to really show your knowledge of English. You don't

want to overuse them, however, because that would appear unnatural, so you want to store

them up and bring them out at just the right moment. And you can use these in your social

life and at work. So, what I'm going to do in this lesson is go through and look at the

meaning of each of these, and then at the end I will show you how to put them kind of

into a context by telling you a story. Okay?

So, "run of the mill". Now, a "mill" was a relic, something from before we had everything

electric. So, a "mill" would be by a river, and it used the force of the water to grind

the grain. Yep, to turn... Basically, to make bread. So, "run of the mill" is like just

something normal that comes out of the mill. Yep. Quite ordinary, just, you know, a normal

bit of bread. Ordinary. Okay?

"To run the risk of". If you run the risk of, it just means you're... You know, whatever

you're doing, there is a risk in doing that. For example, by getting in an aeroplane, dare

I say it, you run the risk - a small risk - that there could be something that goes

wrong. Yep. Okay? To expose yourself to some sort of risk.

If something runs in the family, then think of, like, water running down. And if it runs

in the family, it's like a skill, or an attribute, or a physical characteristic. So, if you say

to your friend who has ginger hair, "It's striking, your hair. It's, you know, unusual",

and he might say, or she might say, "I know. I like it. I mean, it runs in the family."

Obviously, it doesn't have to be about hair colour. It could be about musicality. Maybe

this is something that your mother was good at, and her mum or dad was good, and so it

runs in the family.

To "run like clockwork". I don't know if you've ever seen the film with Ben Stiller and Robert

De Niro, in which Ben Stiller's character is trying to sort of join Robert De Niro's

family via De Niro's daughter. But this family, you know, he is a kind of an ex-CIA intelligence

officer, I believe, and everything runs like clockwork. You know, if they say breakfast

is going to be at 8 o'clock, breakfast is at 8 o'clock. If they're going to leave for

the airport at 9.55, they go at 9.55. So, if something runs like clockwork, it goes

exactly according to plan, not a moment too late.

Right, "in the long run". So, this is looking at the long-term picture. In the long run,

it may be better for us to start doing business in China than continuing with our operations

here in Budapest. I love Budapest, great place to go. So, "in the long run" is talking about

the - looking into the future and thinking about the impact that, you know, the overall

long-term impact. You don't want to make someone's blood run cold, yep, because then they're

going to feel very, very angry, yep, in cold blood. It's like when you're so angry you

could kill.

Now, this relates back to a few hundred years ago when the understanding of the physical

body was that you had humors in the body that sort of ran through your blood, and you were

either, you know, a calm person or an aggressive person. But if your blood goes cold, then

oh. Okay. "To make a run for it", that means you try to escape. So, if I have a student

and they are in detention, and at the end of the school day they try and make a run

for it, they don't stay for my detention, they are out the door and off they go. Of

course, they're not going to get away with it.

To be on the run, this is a slight link with the last one. This is more about sort of criminals

escaping from prison. So, if an escaped convict is on the run, then, you know, they've got

out of the prison somehow. And I'm sure you've seen one of those great films about, like,

prison escapes, like Shawshank Redemption. It's a 15, by the way, so ask your parents.

And then this is the phrase, "to be on the run". Okay.

To run around in circles. Now, if you're running around in circles, then, you know, it's very,

very busy, you're sort of going here, you're going there, but there's not a huge sense

of achieving anything in particular. So, I might say that my dog is running around in

circles trying to find the ball. Yep. So, he's going there, he's going there, yep. He's

frantically trying to find it, but he's not actually finding it. To run around in circles

means to expend a lot of effort without necessarily achieving the desired result.

To run a mile. A mile's quite a great distance. Now, it's Halloween at the moment, and I've

just been looking at pictures of my son going trick-or-treating, so if he was made up so

scarily that when someone opened the door, they ran a mile, it doesn't literally mean

that that person runs a mile, it just means that they're like, "Whoo!" You know, it's

a surprise, it's a shock. So, to make someone run a mile means to make them want to escape

quickly. I won't give you that example. Okay.

To run wild. Now, my dad's a great gardener, and he's got some raised beds that he grows

his vegetables on. But if he were to go away for a few weeks, he might find that the curly

kale, for example, had run wild. So, to run wild means to kind of - to go out of control,

like almost how nature intended it to be, to run wild, to kind of the - it's no longer

sort of controlled the appearance of this vegetable patch.

To run into a brick wall. Ow. So, brick wall. Pretty solid, yep. So, if you run into a brick

wall, you're coming across a very strong barrier, yep. It's like a huge obstacle. So, if you

are trying to - I don't know, think about me, yeah? I'm teaching this lesson, and if

I can't think of an example, if I run into a brick wall, it means, "Oh, I can't explain

it anymore." So, a brick wall is like a strong obstacle to you where you can't see any way

around.

To run out of steam. Now, I imagine this comes from steam railways. So, if the engine runs

out of steam, then it's not going to be going anywhere anytime soon. So, if you run out

of steam, then you are running out of energy. To give someone a run for their money. It's

actually pronounced like, "To give someone a run for their money. To give someone a run

for their money." So, what that suggests is that you are up for the challenge. You're

like, "Yeah, I can run fast." Because this guy is like, "Well, I can run fast." You're

like, "Come on, then. Let's run." And because we have the phrase "for their money", it's

like, "Yeah, I bet, like, ten pounds I can beat you in this race." And he's like, "Yeah,

well, bring it on." So, if you give someone a run for their money, then you lay down a

challenge to a competitor. Okay? So, you - you know, you go, "Come on, then. Let's see how

good you are." To run circles around them. So, we've got this imaginary race, and maybe

you are so fast that you can - you know, we're running this way, but you - it's like you

have a turbo booster behind you, and you're able to go, "Oh, you're still back there.

Let's go around again." So, if you run circles around them, then you are so vastly superior

that you are able to almost make it into a joke.

To run around like a headless chicken. Sometimes, if you kill a bird, it doesn't quite die when

you try and wring its neck. And sometimes, poultry, i.e. birds, can be running around

whilst missing a head. It's not a very pretty sight. I wouldn't recommend trying to see

it anytime soon. I'm not a great advocate. I'm not condoning seeing it, but unfortunately,

I have seen it before. Now, if you see a headless chicken, what you will notice is that it's

in a state of desperation, and its faculties, its abilities have been removed. Now, that's

quite a sort of graphic and strong image, okay? But when we use this phrase, it doesn't

have that serious - seriousness attached to it. So, if you run around like a headless

chicken, it's quite innocuous. It's quite an innocent thing to say, okay? It just means

that you're running around in a totally kind of crazy way. Right. Sorry. I hope I haven't

disturbed you.

A dry run or a trial run. I would probably use this phrase here, or a trial run. I don't

know if you've seen the film Cool Runnings. It's one of my favorite films about the Jamaican

bobsled team. So, before the actual competition, they get a chance to practice going down the

circuit. A trial. "Trial" means like a test, a practice run. "Run" here means attempt,

effort, go. Okay? Quite a lot of rich content there to get your head around. Yeah, try to

forget about the headless chicken. Hope I haven't given you nightmares. And I'm now

going to tell you a story about a girl called Billie, okay? Some girls are called Billie.

Billie Piper, pop singer. Okay. So, Billie was an artist. She was a very talented cartoonist,

and she was desperately concerned that she didn't end up doing a run-of-the-mill job.

She wanted to do something extraordinary. She wanted to make her mark on the world.

But her father knew that she ran the risk of ending up poor and broke. He pointed out

that it didn't exactly run in the family. None of Billie's ancestors had been artists.

Most of them had been accountants and lawyers. Why was Billie trying to do something so controversial?

Billie grew up in a household that ran like clockwork. Everything was ordered, a place

for everything, and everything in its place, Billie's dad used to say. But Billie was looking

for something more. Billie's father kept saying to her, "But Billie, sweetheart, in the long

run it makes much more sense for you to get a sensible job and to settle down." Billie

would not listen. She made her father's blood run cold. And one day she chucked a few belongings

into a bag and set off for the bright light of London town. She had made a run for it,

and she felt exhilarated, but also totally terrified, because she was essentially on

the run. She spent the first few days at friends' houses staying on their sofas, but she ended

up running around in circles because she didn't really know where to go. She knew she had

to approach some creative agencies to try and get on their books to try and get some

work, but every time she went and approached someone to try and get work, they said no

to her. Billie realized that she needed a more long-term base to go and stay, so she

went to go and stay with her aunt and uncle. When she got there, it made her want to run

a mile because it was not the existence she had imagined for herself in London. She wanted

to run wild and have lots of freedom, but at her aunt and uncle's, this was not going

to be the case. She felt like she had run into a brick wall, because she was nearer

her dreams, but yet not really anywhere close to achieving them either. And after two weeks

of knocking on doors and sending her CV to lots of different people, she felt that she

had run out of steam. She had no energy left. It was a real shame, because Billie knew that

she could give the best artist a run for their money, but she had no opportunity. She knew

that given the opportunity, she could run circles around them. And one day in a cafe,

she was just doodling on a piece of paper when an important-looking lady came past and

saw what she had done. She was impressed. She said, "Oh, you've got some talent. Maybe

you should come to our office and we could have a talk about doing some work together."

Billie was so excited that when she got home, she ran around like a headless chicken. She

was that excited. She told her aunt the good news, that she had been given a trial run

at one of London's top agencies.

Okay. I hope you understood the story. It'd be a good idea for you now to have a go at

doing the quiz, just to make sure that you have understood how these words - these idioms

- are used in sentence context. Remember what I said at the beginning about how we use idioms.

You don't want to be saying them all the time. It's like you have them in your pocket, like

it's a secret kind of - it's like a secret lollipop that maybe you give your child when

they're really, really upset. It's a bit like that. You just give them out occasionally,

okay? For special occasions, okay? And you understand them when you hear them. I hope

this has been a useful lesson for you. Thank you very much for watching it. My name's Benjamin.

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Until then, I'll see you very soon.