rage

Violent uncontrolled anger.

Noun

  1. Violent uncontrolled anger.
    • Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd. - 1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, page 39:
    • They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come...
    • […] rage is not only impotent by definition, it is the mode in which impotence becomes active in its last stage of final despair. - 1963, Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, →ISBN, page 101:
  2. A current fashion or fad.
    • Miniskirts were all the rage back then.
    • But the rage of travelling is a symptom of a deeper unsoundness affecting the whole intellectual action. - 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, in Essays: First Series:
    • This rage for boulevardizing has destroyed the quaint, queer, pestilential streets of old Paris, through which it was our pleasure to wander many years since. - 1864, Samuel Greatheed, Daniel Parken, Theophilus...
  3. An exciting and boisterous party.
    • That evening, Felix and Trish Homer invited me to the Sundancer for "a bit of a rage." - 2013, Larry M. Edwards, Dare I Call It Murder?: A Memoir of Violent Loss, San Diego, C.A.: Wigeon Publishing, →ISBN, page 95:

    Synonyms: rager

  4. A subgenre of trap music originating in the United States in the 2020s, characterized by 808s and aggressive, distorted synths.
    • Tripp At Knight feels like a Carti homage, but while it certainly gestures towards the rage sound, Trippie’s imitation of Carti is largely rooted in 2019 rather than 2021. - 2021 December 24, Vivian Medithi, “Playboi...
    • The list of rappers affiliated with rage has exploded in the subsequent 18 months, and several seem poised to break out in 2023. - 2023 February 3, Elias Leight, “These Rising Rappers Are Pushing Rage Music Into the...
    • OK produced the bulk of Jump Out, and the pair succeeded in crafting a sound that, while sonically linked to the forbearers of the underground — maximalist drums in the spirit of so-called “rage” rap along with melodic...
  5. Any vehement passion.
    • And your true rights be termed a poet's rage - 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet XVII”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
    • in great rage of pain - 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […];...
    • convulsed with a rage of grief - 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 6, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

Origin

Etymology tree Classical Latin rabiō Proto-Italic *-jēs Classical Latin -iēs Classical Latin rabiēs Late Latin rabia Anglo-Norman ragebor. Middle English rage English rage From Middle English rage, from Anglo-Norman rage, from Late Latin rabia, from Classical Latin rabiēs (“anger, fury”). Doublet of rabies. Displaced native Middle English wode, from Old English wōd ("madness, fury, rage"; compare Modern dialectal English wood (“mad, insane, furious, raging”)); and Middle English hotherte (“anger”), from Old English hātheort (“fury, anger, wrath, rage”).

Forms

rages

Synonyms

apoplexy fury ire

Derived

air rage all the rage arage black rage defense blind rage computer rage dage day of rage Day of Rage desk rage fly into a rage frustrage outrage paradoxical rage reaction pavement rage rageaholic ragebait rage boner rage clean rage comic rage farm rageful rage game rageholic

Verb

  1. To act or speak in heightened anger.
    • When a Muslim politician held a 50th birthday party, he [Zaharan Hashim] raged about how Western infidel traditions were poisoning his hometown, Kattankudy. - 2019 April 25, Hannah Beech, “Sri Lankan Accused of Leading...
  2. To move with great violence, as a storm etc.
    • Horrible diſcord, and the madding Wheeles / Of brazen Chariots rag'd; dire was the noiſe / Of conflict; over head the diſmal hiſs / Of fiery Darts in flaming volies flew, / And flying vaulted either Hoſt with fire. -...
    • The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.[…]Roaring, leaping, pouncing, the tempest raged about the wanderers, drowning and blotting out their forms with...
    • The two women murmured over the spirit-lamp, plotting the eternal conspiracy of hush and clean bottles while the wind raged and gave a sudden wrench at the cheap fastenings. - 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1,...

    Synonyms: rave

  3. To party hard; to have a good time.
    • These events are all about raging hard, getting as fucked up as you can. Not necessarily even about dancing, just being a face in this giant extravaganza. - 2012 August 2, Simon Reynolds, quoting Nathan Messer, “How...
  4. To enrage.
    • The King is come, deale mildly with his youth, / For young hot Colts, being rag'd, do rage the more. - 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in...

Origin

From Middle English ragen, from Old French rager, ragier, from the noun (see above). Displaced native Middle English weden (“to rage with anger”), from Old English wēdan (“to rage”), and Old English iersian, among other synonyms.

Forms

rages raging raged

Synonyms

fume foam at the mouth frenzy froth at the mouth let rip lose it rampage rant rage rave see red seethe storm

Hypernyms

emote vent

Related

assault make a scene anger angry tantrum

Derived

raging agreement raging mad road-raging