runt

The OED classifies this word as "of obscure origin".[1] Some see a connection to Middle Dutch runt (“ox”), but the OED considers this to be unlikely.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹʌnt/

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• Rhymes: -ʌnt

runt (plural runts)

1. The smallest animal of a litter.
   • 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 168:

     Sometimes, as we have seen, one member of a litter is a runt, much smaller than the rest. He is unable to fight for food as strongly as the rest, and runts often die. We have considered the conditions under which it would actually pay a mother to let a runt die.

2. (by extension) The smallest child in the family.

   the runt of the family

3. Undersized or stunted plant, animal or person.

   Synonym: dwarf

4. (slang) An uninfluential or unimportant person; a nobody.
5. (networking) An Ethernet packet that does not meet the medium's minimum packet size of 64 bytes.
6. (typography) A single word (or portion of a hyphenated word) that appears as the last line of a paragraph.

   Hypernym: widow

7. A breed of pigeon related to the carrier pigeon.
8. (obsolete, UK, dialect) A hardened stem or stalk of a plant.
   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XVI.]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, →OCLC:

     Neither young poles nor old runts are durable

9. A bow.

• turn

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runt

1. inflection of runnen:
   1. second/third-person singular present indicative
   2. (archaic) plural imperative

• turn

runt

1. nominative/accusative neuter singular of rundur

runt

1. around

runt m (oblique and nominative feminine singular runde)

1. Alternative form of reont

runt

1. round, circular, spherical

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runt

1. indefinite neuter singular of rund

runt

1. around; aimlessly (about movement)

   gå runt

   walk around

2. around; at random locations
3. around; in a manner that involves a lot of transportation

• dygnet runt
• gå runt
• se sig runt
• vända runt

runt

1. around; denoting a full circle
2. around; following a path which curves near an object
3. around (a corner)
4. around, near (about time)

   Jag kommer runt tre.

   I'll come around three o'clock.

5. about; all round

• kring
• omkring

• runt om
• runt omkring

• ee-runt, ee-rent

From Middle English rent, i-rent, past participle of renden (“to tear”).

• IPA^(key): /ɾʊnt/, /iːˈɾʊnt/, /iːˈɾɛnt/

runt

1. torn

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 65