run [OE] An important little Anglo-Saxon word found in many common phrases. If you come into conflict with someone you have run foul of them. This nautical expression refers to a ship which had collided or become entangled with another vessel or with an obstacle. If people are angry public feeling may run high, which is another nautical phrase, from waves or tides rising about their normal height, especially in stormy conditions. Both of these phrases are late 16th century. An ordinary or undistinguished person might be described as a run-of-the-mill type. Here the run is the material produced from a mill before it has been sorted or inspected for quality. When you run someone to earth [E19th] the literal meaning is ‘to chase a hunted animal to its lair and corner it there’. A running battle is literally one that constantly changes its location, the opposite of a pitched battle (see pitch). The expression is first recorded in the late 17th century as running fight and described a naval engagement that continued even as one side was fleeing. The current version was not recorded until the 20th century, but is now the more common. See also gauntlet.