runaboutn.adj.

1549 T. Smith Let. 19 July (modernized text) in P. F. Tytler Eng. under Edward VI & Mary (1839) I. 187 Let one of those Runabouts come,..straight they call up their neighbours.

1607 J. Marston What you Will iii. i. sig. D3^v A runne-about, a skipping French-man.

1685 R. Dunning Plain & Easie Method 11 Not..of the better sort of Workmen, but equal with the Scotchmen, the most genteel sort of Runabouts.

1768 S. Gunning Barford Abbey II. xxiv. 8 Where are my two runabouts going now?

1783 S. Bache Let. 1 Jan. in B. Franklin Papers (2006) XXXVIII. 532 You are already acquainted with all the Clever things, that the rest of the little runabouts do.

1820 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. May 163 Some handy rinabout had emptied our laird's hen-bawks.

1888 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. (at cited word) A hawker or pedlar is often called a run-about.

1921 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 98 110/1 In the home for the little ‘runabouts’, children from two to six years of age.

1974 J. A. Hostetler Hutterite Society ix. 214 Children leave kindergarten on their fifth birthday but do not enter the English school for another year or more. These ‘runabouts’ attend German school when it is in session.

1990 P. Magubane et al. Soweto Portrait of City iv. 85 The younger runabouts are usually glue sniffers.

1893 W. O. Stoddard Men of Business iv. 79 A stout boy of fifteen, ready to do anything, could earn a bare living as a run-about.

1918 M. E. Stone in ‘M. E. S.’ ix. 217 The ordinarily accepted view of the reporter, that he is a runabout for items.

1957 G. Bellairs Death in High Provence iii. 29 The garde champêtre, the mayor's run-about, mainly concerned with duties as game and forest warden.

1996 J. Doran Red Doran 84 He was the general runabout for the boss (there's one in every firm).

1863 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Daily Sentinel 1 Aug. The ‘dog-cart’ is a useful and admirable thing, on two wheels, and is much used as a runabout.

1885 Syracuse (N.Y.) Daily Standard 24 Sept. 4/4 In runabouts he shows market, pleasure, canopy top, extension top, and livery styles.

1900 Motor-car World 1 130/2 A new small car... It is known as the University Runabout.

1901 Munsey's Mag. 24 835/1 The horses high of action,..the runabout rolling dreamily on its cushion tires.

1956 News Chron. 1 Nov. 8/5 It is the latest in a line of economy runabouts—the Mark E Bond Minicar.

2009 Guardian 17 Jan. 35/1 Electric cars are not milk floats, they can be exciting sports cars, they can be family runabouts.

1898 E. Ingersoll Bk. of Ocean vi. 140 Small, swift..torpedo-boat chasers, small gunboats.., despatch-boats, dynamite-cruisers,..tow-boats, and similar minor craft—the run-abouts of the naval service.

1932 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 7 Sept. 10/3 This event will be followed by..two free-for-all outboard races and a race for runabouts not over 50 horsepower.

1966 T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 iii. 64 ‘Help,’ said Di Presso, looking back..across the lake. Another runabout had appeared and was headed toward them.

1986 Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 17 Aug. 105/2 John Haines Australia has released a new Signature 1950 runabout for the Sydney boat show.

1999 J. Raban Passage to Juneau viii. 433 Waterskiers towed by nippy white runabouts were making figure-eights around the slow-moving anglers.

1904 A. Santos-Dumont My Airships xxii. 282 I determined to build a small air-ship runabout for my pleasure and convenience only.

1932 Flight 13 Oct. 952 The machines would have been the forerunners of cheap aerial runabouts.

1966 P. O'Donnell Sabre-tooth vi. 87 The twin-engined de Haviland Dove, the six-passenger aircraft which plied as a runabout from the valley..to Kabul.

1997 G. Szurovy & M. Goulian Adv. Aerobatics xvi. 184 If you want to fly unlimited aerobatics but would also like to use the airplane as a weekend runabout, the S-2's cockpit is just a bit too cramped.