From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishrun in the familyrun in the familySSFFAMILYif something such as a quality, disease, or skill runs in the family, many people in that family have it Diabetes appears to run in families. → run
Examples from the Corpus
run in the family• Asthma seems to run in our family.• Good looks must run in the family.• And yet great passions, or the tendency to them, seemed to run in the family.• Best not to say anything about it running in the family.• It's more of a case of maintaining form while others struggle, and it often runs in the family.• Jimmy Souness, who was a school cleaner, had a history of heart disease which runs in the family.• The truth was that deafness ran in the family.• Writing books about grandparents seems to run in the family.• Twins run in the family, so it didn't surprise us when we heard the news. 