I was reading this news item and came across this sentence.
Melanie Zanona at Politico this morning is running the rule over some of the eager young Trumpist Republicans in the House who might be eyeing up the Senate seats that are about to become vacant in the next election cycle.
I was struck by the phrase ‘running the rule’ because I had never heard that idiom before. The context in which it appears does not make clear what it means. The plain language seems to suggest applying some rule but since the rule itself was not specified and is not obvious, that does not help in deciphering the meaning.
Merriam-Webster does not recognize it. The Cambridge dictionary says it is “to examine something to see if it is good enough or right for a particular purpose”. Wiktionary says that to run the rule is to “examine carefully and thoroughly” but Lexico says that it means to “examine cursorily for correctness or adequacy”.
So we have three different meanings. One is just to examine, the other is to examine carefully, and the third is to examine cursorily.
I think I will avoid using the phrase.
I have always heard it as “running a ruler over something” and considered it to be a close examination.
I have used more or less that expression, but I don’t think it means what they mean. If I am trying to see what a cellular automaton does (like Conway’s Game of Life, but it could be others), I will “run the rule” for a few steps. It could apply to other simulation systems, though I sort of doubt this has slipped into popular usage even as a metaphor.
Another version of “take the measure of”.
Merriam-Webster does not recognize it. The Cambridge dictionary says it is “to examine something to see if it is good enough or right for a particular purpose”. Wiktionary says that to run the rule is to “examine carefully and thoroughly” but Lexico says that it means to “examine cursorily for correctness or adequacy”.
So we have three different meanings.
I see the Wiktionary definition as incomplete. If you look at the example sentences in the Lexico entry, the “cursorily” seems to be an error, as there examples are from where people would tend to be thorough..
Probably a carpentry term.
From the Free Dictionary: “To examine, scrutinize, or inspect someone to see if they are worthy. Primarily heard in UK.”
To see if they are worthy seems the appropriate definition in this context.
“Run the rule” at The Free Dictionary
I’m guessing that 1, 3 and 5 got it right. In carpentry and mechanical drawing, a “rule” is what most of us would call a “ruler.”
Running the rule to see if they measure up.
Rule as in ruler.
Rule = ruler. “Running the rule over” = “measuring up”.
/snap Larpar, you beat me to it.
I am a native American English speaker, and have never heard that before.
@11 Reginald Selkirk
I am not a American English speaker. It may be Commonwealth expression.
@12 jrkrideau
As an Australian English speaker, I’d say that it would be recognised and understood to mean “examine carefully” here, but I think it’s now probably a bit dated.
It may not be a useful expression to use to a largely US English audience, even without the differences in dictionary definitions.
As an Australian English speaker, I do say I’ve not encountered it before, and naively would have thought it meant to apply a rule.
In carpentry, if you ‘run the rule’ over something, you are comparing the surface of a board against a known straight edge as a quick way to check for high and low spots.
So, in this case, it would be seeing which ones meet a certain level, and which ones fall below that level
@ #9 file thirteen
I got a hint from Lofty @ #5