Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—R

Run Amuck

(See Amuck.)

“It was like a Malay running amuck, only with a more deadly weapon.” —The Times.

Frontless and satire-proof he scours the streets,
And runs an Indian-muck at all he meets.

Dryden: The Hind and the Panther.

Run a Rig (To). To play a trick, to suffer a sportive trick. Thus, John Gilpin, when he set out, “little thought of running such a rig” as he suffered. Florio gives as a meaning of rig, “the tricks of a wanton;” hence frolicsome and deceptive tricks. The rig of a ship means the way it is rigged, hence its appearance: and, as pirates deceive by changing the rig of their vessel, so rig came to mean a trick to deceive, a trick, a frolicsome deception.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Run Riot
Run
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

More on Run Amuck from Fact Monster:

Related Content