run for one's life

English

Pronunciation
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Verb

run for one's life (third-person singular simple present runs for one's life, present participle running for one's life, simple past ran for one's life, past participle run for one's life)

  1. To run away desperately from danger.
    • 1982, Iron Maiden, Run to the Hills:
      Run to the hills! Run for your life!
    • 2010, Irvin D. Yalom, Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death, →ISBN:
      Typically she would be awakened by a nightmare, very few of which she remembered, except for scraps involving being chased and running for her life.
    • 2013, Martin Duberman, The Martin Duberman Reader, →ISBN:
      Zipping up my fly, i ran out of the park, ran without stopping, panicked, hysterical, ran for my life back to my dorm room.
    • December 7 2022, Simon Shuster, “2022 Person of the Year: Volodymyr Zelensky”, in Time‎:
      Instead of running for their lives, many Ukrainians grabbed whatever weapons they could find and ran to defend their towns and cities against an invading force armed with tanks and attack helicopters.
  2. (idiomatic) To attempt to escape an extremely bad situation.
    • 2007, Bj Binning, Circumstances, →ISBN, page 9:
      Isn't the dating period supposed to be the period where they are getting to know each other and they are supposed to be in a daze about each other? What is your problem, Bella? Run for your life!
    • 2011, Machicote, Life Trials, →ISBN, page 9:
      There are also times you must run for your life or be dragged away into “Dam! I Could of, I Should of, or If I would of land.
    • 2014, Amia Lieblich, Narratives of Positive Aging: Seaside Stories, →ISBN:
      A little voice, however, advised me: 'Run for your life, your place is on that beach.'
    • 2017, Jennifer S. Holland, For These Monkeys, It’s a Fight for Survival., National Geographic (March 2017)
      Yaki have just one natural predator, the reticulated python, but they have many enemies. Land clearers are pushing the monkeys around. Roadbuilders are hemming them in. And outlaw trappers have them running for their lives.

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