Phrasal Verb |
Meaning |
Example Sentence |
read into |
To assign a meaning to someone’s words that they just don’t have. |
You are reading too much into her remarks; she probably didn’t mean it. |
read out |
To read aloud. |
He read out a list of names of those who died in the disaster. |
read through/over |
To read from beginning to end. |
I read through the passage for him and discovered some mistakes. |
read up |
To find out information by reading. |
Let’s read up on the plumbing in the manual before we do anything. |
reason with |
To urge or persuade by giving good reasons. |
I tried for days to reason with her but she wouldn’t listen. |
reckon in |
To include something in a calculation. |
If you reckon in the prohibitive cost of repairs, it seems worthwhile to buy a new one. |
reckon on |
To expect. |
We didn’t reckon on hiring more staff. |
reckon with |
To have someone powerful or something difficult to deal with. |
He made a report against them, and now they have the police to reckon with. |
To fail to take into account. |
They reckoned without the problem of lack of funds. |
|
relate to |
To understand and share the feelings of another person. |
He is unable to relate to older people. |
To have a friendly relationship with someone. |
He doesn’t relate well to his peers. |
|
rely on/upon |
To depend on. |
This landlocked country has to rely on its eastern neighbor for its import and export. |
To trust someone |
You can safely rely on his judgment. |
|
remark on |
To pass comment. |
Her friends at the party remarked on her outfit. |
remind of |
To make someone remember someone else. |
The song reminds him of his mates in his prison days. |
To make someone remember something. |
How often do you look at your watch to remind you of the time? |
|
report back |
To bring or send back an account of something, as a journalist or reporter does. |
He reported back that the violence had escalated. |
report to |
To be responsible to someone at the workplace. |
We were told to report to the new manager tomorrow. |
rest on |
To depend. |
The future of the company rests solely on consumers’ demand. |
To look steadily and intently. |
His eyes rested on the young girl sitting alone in the corner. |
|
rest with |
To have the responsibility to do something. |
The final decision to or not to release the hostages rests with the leader. |
result from |
To be caused by something. |
His death resulted from the negligence on the doctor's part. |
result in |
To be caused by something. |
The accident resulted in the loss of his left leg. |
ring back |
To return a telephone call. |
She said she would ring back and that was ten hours ago. |
ring in |
To call one’s workplace by telephone. |
The boss rang in to inform he had taken the day off. |
To mark the start of something new. |
The city never fails to ring in the New Year with a brilliant firework display. |
|
ring off |
To end a telephone call. |
After a long conversation, we agreed to ring off. |
ring out |
To be loud and clear. |
A scream rang out from the house across the road in the middle of the night. |
ring up |
To use a cash register to record an amount. |
The new cashier rang up the wrong amount. |
To call someone or some place by telephone. |
Someone rang up the fire station to report a fire. |
|
run across |
To find or meet by chance. |
I ran across my ex and her lover this morning. |
run after |
To seek the attention of someone with the intention of getting romantically involved. |
He is always running after girls with long hair. |
To catch someone up for a purpose. |
He ran after her to return a set of keys which she dropped. |
|
run against |
To compete for something, especially a position of power. |
He intends to run against his father in the by-election. |
To encounter something unexpectedly. |
While swimming across the river, we soon found ourselves running against strong current. |
|
run along |
To tell someone, especially children to go away. |
The children were told to run along so that the two adults could carry on with their conversation. |
run around |
To get oneself busy doing many different things. |
At your age, you shouldn’t be running around like that. |
run away |
To leave secretly from someone or some place. |
The husband ran away from his domineering wife. |
run away with |
To win easily. |
She ran away with two gold medals in this year’s swimming competition. |
To leave secretly with someone. |
This is the second time he ran away with a neighbour’s wife. |
|
run down |
To hit and knock down someone or something with a vehicle. |
A car ran down a pedestrian while being chased by a patrol car. |
To represent someone as being of little worth; to criticize unfairly. |
She often runs herself down as she feels she’s unable to deal with her life. |
|
To trace and capture someone. |
The police have finally run down the leader of the drug traffickers in his new hideout. |
|
To reduce the size, resources, etc. of something. |
They are running down their ostrich farm as the demand for ostrich meat and eggs has fallen. |
|
To examine something in details; to go over. |
We have to run down the list of names to make sure no one is excluded. |
|
To lose power. |
The clock has stopped working; it’s very probable its batteries have run down. |
|
run into |
To use a vehicle to hit someone or something by accident. |
He lost control of his car and ran it into a bus. |
To experience a difficulty. |
We ran into financial difficulties six months after we started the business. |
|
To meet by chance. |
This morning I ran into an old colleague. |
|
To amount to. |
His wealth is likely to run into seven figures in a few years. |
|
run off |
To run away secretly to get married. |
Her husband ran off with her sister. |
To run away from someone. |
He ran off after getting her pregnant. |
|
To print or to duplicate. |
The new machine can run off fifty copies in a minute. |
|
To shed the extra weight. |
She joined a new gym to run off her excess pounds. |
|
run off with |
To secretly escape or to leave hurriedly to avoid arrest. |
He ran off with a huge sum of his employer’s money. |
run on |
To continue longer than is expected. |
The lecture became more boring when it ran on for another hour. |
To be powered by something. |
The professor claimed to have invented a car that ran on seawater. |
|
run out |
To be used up. |
She felt like screaming at him when her patience ran out. |
To come to the end of the period of validity; to expire. |
Our operating licence runs out at the end of the year. |
|
run out of |
To use up. |
We can’t post our letters now as we have run out of stamps. |
To become used up |
We are running out of funds at the moment, so we are not going on holiday. |
|
run out on |
To suddenly leave someone. |
She deeply regrets running out on her parents a few months ago. |
run over |
To knock down and pass over someone or something by a vehicle. |
His dog died shortly after it was run over by a taxi. |
To review. |
Let’s run over the tables and figures in the report before we leave for the meeting. |
|
To overflow. |
Someone left the tap on and the water ran over. |
|
To exceed the expected ending time. |
The meeting has run over by nearly an hour; shall we continue tomorrow? |
|
run through |
To go over something. |
Let’s run through the solutions to the exercises again. |
To examine something. |
She ran through my essay and discovered some spelling mistakes. |
|
run to |
To reach a particular amount or level. |
How could a bill for a minor repair to my car run to a hundred dollars? |
run up |
To increase in amount or number. |
We ran up a very large hotel bill. |
To make something, especially clothes, hurriedly. |
With his new machine, the tailor can run up a piece of clothing within hours. |
|
run up against |
To unexpectedly meet or be faced with difficulty. |
Construction of a chemical plant had run up against growing local opposition. |
rush around |
To act with urgent haste. |
We rushed around informing all the members of the last-minute cancellation. |
rush into |
To get involved without prior consideration. |
John begins to regret rushing into that high-risk venture without careful thought. |
rush out |
To quickly produce and distribute something. |
The manufacturer is rushing out the novelties for the festive season. |