road rage

noun

: a motorist's uncontrolled anger that is usually triggered by an action of another motorist and that is expressed in aggressive or violent behavior

From punching cars to shooting drivers, road rage … takes many forms.

—Natalie La Roche Pietri

Drivers reported experiencing road rage most frequently on city streets (29.18%), on freeways or highways (26.59%) and in parking lots (14.9%).

—Ashlee Tilford

—often used before another noun

a road rage incident

An apparent road rage shooting left one person wounded …

—Anna Spoerre

road rager

ˈrōd-ˌrā-jər 

noun

plural road ragers

Other drivers may have similar feelings or thoughts, but only the road rager responds with dangerous behavior: tailgating, pulling right in front of you at high speeds, running you off the road, refusing to let you into traffic, and so on.

—Michael Karson

Examples of road rage in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Police say all three knew each other and may be related, and the shooting does not appear to be road rage. —Doug Myers, CBS News, 27 Mar. 2026

In 2016 he’d been arrested in an alleged road rage incident at the Lincoln Tunnel between New York City and New Jersey, but gun charges were later dropped and the remaining charges reduced to misdemeanors. —Theresa Braine, New York Daily News, 25 Mar. 2026

The driver then changes lanes and pulled up next to him, displayed a gun and fired, striking the motorcyclist in the leg, police said of the apparent road rage incident. —Shambhavi Rimal, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 Mar. 2026

One man was killed and two others were wounded Thursday night in a road rage shooting in South Dallas, police say. —Jamie Landers, Dallas Morning News, 20 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1988, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for road rage

• assuage
• backstage
• bocage
• downstage
• engage
• enrage
• leafage
• messuage
• offstage
• onstage
• outrage
• pelage