From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishrun for coverrun for covera) to run towards a place where you will be safe, especially to avoid bullets He was shot in the leg as he ran for cover. b) to try to protect yourself from a bad situation or from being criticized His success at backing winning horses has had the bookmakers running for cover. → run
Examples from the Corpus
run for cover• At the sound of gunfire, people ran for cover.• The neighborhood children will run for cover.• Signs of trouble on Wall Street sent investors running for cover.• I managed to land on all fours and started to run for cover.• Panicked marchers and onlookers ran for cover.• All the fish in the country will have to run for cover after what happened to me this week!• Populations of wild game ran for cover, and were subsequently replaced by domesticated livestock.• Below, people were running for cover as bits of machinery rained down.• I explained all that to Chatterton, but stressed that we would run for cover at the first sign of trouble.• The Doctor ran for cover, grabbing the poet's sleeve and pulling him to the side. 