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Synonyms

run the show

Idioms  

  1. Take charge, assume control, as in Ever since Bill retired from the business, his daughter's been running the show. The word show here simply means “kind of undertaking.” [First half of 1900s] A similar usage is run one's own show, meaning “exert control over one's own activities” or “act independently.” For example, The high school drama club didn't ask permission to perform that play—they want to run their own show. [Mid-1900s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

A handful of powerful agencies run the show, which means they have to bet on an aspiring star for them to succeed in Korea.

From BBC

Appointed board members are motivated not by an interest in the performing arts but by the honor and prestige of being on the board and, in a town where officeholders run the show, the value of it as a social calling card for non-officeholders.

From The Wall Street Journal

It was both the first time they’d run the show on a stage and the last time they would practice before the sold-out Beautiful Chaos tour.

From Los Angeles Times

Lorenzo: Celtic cannot progress while the same faces run the show with their regular-managed decline.

From BBC

“Over the past months, it has . . . become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it. To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience,” Owens wrote in a staff memo.

From Salon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.