Runaway

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈɹʌnəweɪ/

Definitions

1. A person who has fled from home or confinement, or something that has escaped control and moves rapidly or uncontrollably in an unintended direction
2. A person or object that has broken free from restraint and continues in rapid, uncontrolled motion, or someone who has fled a place of residence or captivity without permission
3. A person who has fled from their place of residence or a situation of confinement, or something that has become uncontrolled and accelerates beyond intended limits

Etymology: "Runaway" is a deverbal formation: it was built directly from the phrasal verb "run away" and turned into a noun and adjective. The pattern is familiar in English, where a verb phrase is compressed into a single word that names the doer or the thing doing the action. A "runaway" is therefore, at root, simply someone or something that runs away, with the two-word action folded into one compound-like term. The word's history is plain, and its interest lies in how readily the phrase shifted from an action to a thing. The same move turned "breakdown," "takeover," and "cave-in" into nouns, and "runaway" followed it, first naming a fugitive and later a machine or horse that bolts beyond control. The adjective use, as in a "runaway success" or "runaway inflation," extends the sense of uncontrolled, unstoppable motion into abstract and economic territory.

Synonyms: escapee, fugitive, deserter, absconder, evader

Antonyms: stay, settler