Runaway

How to spell runaway

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce runaway

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does runaway mean?

1. nounA person or animal that has fled from home, captivity, or control.
2. adjectiveOut of control, or happening rapidly and without restraint.

Runaway in a sentence

• noun

  The shelter takes in a teenage runaway almost every night and contacts the family.

• adjective

  The driver could not stop the runaway truck before it hit the barrier.

• noun

  Police found the runaway sleeping in a bus station two towns away.

• adjective

  Her debut novel became a runaway bestseller within weeks.

Where does runaway come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound, joining the verb 'run' to the adverb 'away'. Both halves are deeply native: 'run' descends from Old English rinnan and iernan, meaning 'to flow or move swiftly', while 'away' comes from Old English aweg, literally 'on the way' or 'off'. The pairing began as a verb phrase, 'to run away', and by the sixteenth century it had hardened into a single noun describing a person, animal, or horse that had fled. The adjectival use, as in a runaway carriage or a runaway success, grew naturally from that, extending to anything moving or growing beyond control. Because both parts are common words spelled exactly as you would expect, the only mild trap is remembering it is written as one solid word rather than two.

How the word is built

• run (to move quickly, flee)
• away (off, from a place); a compound of two everyday English words