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

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

Police determined that the incident stemmed from an isolated road rage incident. —Jt Moodee Lockman, CBS News, 20 Mar. 2026

The man said he was involved in what appeared to be a road rage incident while headed south when the other driver fired a shot from their driver side window, police said. —Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 18 Mar. 2026

Among them were the one believed used in the road rage incident as well as a pistol reported stolen out of Santa Rosa, an assault rife, a sawed off shotgun and other firearms, authorities said. —Harry Harris, Mercury News, 6 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