run rings around


run rings around (one)

To do something much better or more efficiently than someone else. Please, I could run rings around you guys—let me try playing that video game with you. After seeing her latest times, I expect Shelly to run rings around her competition in the pool today.See also: around, ring, run

run rings around

Also, run circles around. Be markedly superior to, as in Ethan runs rings around David in chess, or In spelling, Karen runs circles around her classmates. The first term, dating from the late 1800s, alludes to a horse running around a riding ring much faster than the others. See also: around, ring, run

run ˈrings around/round somebody/something

(informal) do something very well and so make your opponent look foolish: I don’t want to compete against her in the debate, she’ll run rings around me.See also: around, ring, round, run, somebody, something

run circles/rings around, to

To defeat decisively in a contest; to outdo. The implication here is that a runner moving in circles can still beat another running in a straight line. The term began to appear in print in the 1890s. “He could run rings round us in everything,” wrote G. Parker in the Westminster Gazette (1894). See also: circle, ring, run