From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishrun its courserun its courseHAPPENif something runs its course, it continues in the way you expect until it has finished Recession in the country has run its course and left an aftermath of uncertainty. → run
Examples from the Corpus
run its course• We would let his interest run its course.• But meiosis in eggs may take half a century to run its course.• Her academic job had run its course.• Indeed, the recent pickup in some measures of wages suggests that the transition may already be running its course.• It is by no means clear that the process of financial innovation has run its course.• One useful source was the huge number of glossy magazines about money that had proliferated as the yuppy decade ran its course.• That agency opted to let nature run its course.• Greenspan suggested the recession might run its course by midyear.• Once the disease has run its course, it's not likely to return.• Now, as the debilitating treatment runs its course, Vivian's intellectual skills no longer serve her. 