end run

noun

Football.. Also called end sweep, sweep. a running play in which the ball-carrier attempts to outflank the defensive end.

Informal.

an evasive or diversionary maneuver.
an attempt to surmount a difficulty without confronting it directly.

Origin

1900-05, Americanism

Examples from the web for end run

It is true that one can do an end run around one's preferred style.
The term also does an end run around that dread notion, nonfiction.
Employers use illegal aliens as an end run around minimum wage laws.
It's an end run by the bureaucracy to try to make significant changes to the payment limit eligibility.
The appellant attempts an end run around that ruling.

Slang definitions & phrases for end run

end run

noun phrase

An attempt to avoid or evade higher authority by acting outside authorized channels: McLarty gave Shalala a dressing down about doing end runs around the White House

verb

: Special interests have found new ways to end-run our system/ the label chiefs would no longer be allowed to end-run Morgado (1950s+ fr football)

Idioms and Phrases with end run

end run

Evasive action, as in The new department head was making an end run around the old hands who opposed her appointment. This term comes from American football, where it denotes an offensive play in which the ball carrier runs around one end of the opposing team's line. [ Mid-1900s ]