run something through something?

[velimir]

Hello everybody,

Here's a sentence from a magazine which has puzzled me:

.
A year earlier Pellicano had run the names of the two former Owitz's partners through the LAPD database.

I haven't come across the usage of "run through" in this way so far,and dictionaries quote this construction only in sense "run a sword through" or similar.In the sense of "examine something" , "run" doesn't take a object and it is like: 'run through a list of items". Is the usage of "run smth through smth" common in denoting a search of information from some source?

And I have one more question regarding the usage of prepositions with verbs.When I want to convey the sense " stop doing activity that somebody was regularly engaged in earlier" which of the following options would be correct,and which would be the most common in an everyday talk to convey the sense " I do not attend (i.e ) classes no more"


1.I've forgone attending..
2.I've quitted attending..
3.I've abandoned attending..
4.I've broken off with attending..
5.I've stopped with attending..

(And if I leaved out the preposition "with" from the last two examples would it be correct?)

If I want to emphasize that it was my practice to attend to..,would it be correct for each of the examples to put in "practice of", i.e.."I've quitted the practice of attending.." and so on?

Thanks

[David L.]

.
A year earlier Pellicano had run the names of the two former Owitz's partners through the LAPD database.

It is implicit that the database is on a computer. In the very early days of the first computers, before keyboards and mice, information was punched into cardboard cards which were fed into the computer, and the cards would be 'run through the computer'. Now, it is a common expression to say, 'run some piece of information' through a computer eg to see if they can find a match for a fingerprint.

And I have one more question regarding the usage of prepositions with verbs.When I want to convey the sense " stop doing activity that somebody was regularly engaged in earlier" which of the following options would be correct,and which would be the most common in an everyday talk to convey the sense " I do not attend (i.e ) classes any more"


1.I've forgone attending..
NO
2.I've quit attending..
YES - this is very casual speech, very American
3.I've abandoned attending..
NO
4.I've broken off with attending..
NO. Even omitting the 'with' it would sound very odd.
5. I've stopped attending.. YES

If I want to emphasize that it was my practice to attend something, would it be correct for each of the examples to put in "practice of", i.e.."I've quitted the practice of attending.." and so on?
NO. You would have to phrase it,
Although it was my practice to attend regularly, I decided to quit classes/stop going to classes. (This sounds rather formal)

[velimir]

Thanks a lot David.

Best regards