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, Lolita (Crest Giant; D338), Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications, published December 1959, →OCLC, part 2, page 181:

     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