run a temperature

run a temperature (third-person singular simple present runs a temperature, present participle running a temperature, simple past ran a temperature, past participle run a temperature)

1. (idiomatic) To have a fever.
   • 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 12, in Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC, part 2, page 200:

     At first she "ran a temperature" in American parlance, and I could not resist the exquisite caloricity of unexpected delights—Venus febriculosa—though it was a very languid Lolita that moaned and coughed and shivered in my embrace.

• run a fever