run amok

run amok

1. To behave or run around in a wild, unruly, out-of-control manner; to be crazy or chaotic. We tried to have some organized games for the kids, but as soon as they all got here they started running amok. The villagers were cleaning up debris for days after the bulls ran amok through the streets.

2. To become bad or go awry; to get out of control; to go haywire. This whole operation has run amok. I don't know how we can be expected to finish under the deadline in these conditions.

3. dated To rush around in a violent, murderous frenzy. This is the phrase's original meaning, taken from Malay. "Amok" also has an older alternative spelling, "amuck." Members of the warrior clan were known to run amok on the battlefield in a bloodthirsty frenzy.

See also: amok, run

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

run amok

 and run amuck

to go awry; to go bad; to turn bad; to go into a frenzy. (From a Malay word meaning to run wild in a violent frenzy.) Our plan ran amok. He ran amuck early in the school year and never quite got back on the track.

See also: amok, run

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

run amok

Also, run riot or wild . Behave in a frenzied, out-of-control, or unrestrained manner. For example, I was afraid that if I left the toddler alone she would run amok and have a hard time calming down , or The weeds are running riot in the lawn, or The children were running wild in the playground. Amok comes from a Malay word for "frenzied" and was adopted into English, and at first spelled amuck, in the second half of the 1600s. Run riot dates from the early 1500s and derives from an earlier sense, that is, a hound's following an animal scent. Run wild alludes to an animal reverting to its natural, uncultivated state; its figurative use dates from the late 1700s.

See also: amok, run

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

run amok

behave uncontrollably and disruptively.

Amok , formerly also spelt amuck , comes from the Malay word amuk , meaning ‘in a homicidal frenzy’, in which sense it was first introduced into English in the early 16th century.

1990 New York Review of Books Hersh's article is sensationalism run amok. It does no credit to him or to The New York Times Magazine .

See also: amok, run

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

run aˈmok

behave in a wild or uncontrolled way: The crowd ran amok through the city streets when they heard their leaders had been killed. Amok comes from the Malay word for ‘attack fiercely’.

See also: amok, run

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

run amok

(ˈrən əˈmək)

in. to go awry. (From a Malay word meaning to run wild in a violent frenzy.) Our plan ran amok.

See also: amok, run

McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

run amok, to

To go crazy; to behave in a wild, frenzied manner. This term is based on the Malay word amok, meaning “a state of frenzy.” In England, however, it was at first spelled amuck, as in Andrew Marvell’s account (The Rehearsal Transposed, 1672): “Like a raging Indian . . . he runs a mucke (as they cal it there) stabbing every man he meets.”

See also: run, to

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer