Running amok metaphorically means that someone is in some way dangerously out of control.
An elephant that breaks free at a circus might also be described as running amok.
Amok is a Malaysian word meaning “a state of murderous frenzy.”
Sixteenth-century explorers said that it was terrifying to see someone running amok, a condition brought on by drug use among some of the Malay people.
When either humans or animals are on a rampage we say they’ve “run amok”.
