run the rule over

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

run the rule over (third-person singular simple present runs the rule over, present participle running the rule over, simple past ran the rule over, past participle run the rule over)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To examine carefully and thoroughly.
   • 2018 May 4, Tom English, “Steven Gerrard: A 'seriously clever or recklessly stupid' Rangers appointment”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     The captain used to to run the rule over every new recruit, like a protective father inspecting the boy his darling daughter had brought home to tea. He was obsessive about it.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary