run-around

English

Etymology

Deverbal from run around.

Noun

run-around (plural run-arounds)

1. Alternative form of runaround
   • 1977, The Federal Reporter, page 211:

     The Board points to Driver Supervisor Wade Seal's testimony that a dispatcher was not doing his job right when he deliberately ran around a driver (Tr. 1414(2)) and the portion of Booe's testimony where Booe obviously wished to avoid stating that the company had a policy of permitting deliberate run-arounds.

   • 2013, A.E. Cawkell, Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Information Technology and Systems:

     Use run-arounds to fill the white space around irrigularly shared artwork.

   • 2013, Natalie Canavor, Business Writing For Dummies, →ISBN, page 26:

     They like phone calls but resent telephone run-arounds and response delays.

2. Synonym of runabout.

   We have big people-carrier, and also a little run-around for popping to the shops.

   • 2010, Mario Reading -, The Mayan Codex, →ISBN:

     The car had captured his attention even then, as It had seemed so out of place in a street full of Peugeots, and Renaults, and six-seater Fiat run-arounds.

   • 2014, Cathy Williams, A Tempestuous Temptation, →ISBN:

     She followed him to his fancy car, incongruous between the battered, old run-arounds on either side, and made another inarticulate noise as he beeped it open.

   • 2016, Liz Nugent, Lying In Wait, →ISBN, page 134:

     We got a shockingly low price for it and bought a small tin-can run-around.