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

Advertisement The shooting was the result of a road rage incident between a Cadillac sedan and a Dodge Durango, a CHP official told KABC. —Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2024

Witnesses reported that a road rage incident between the two vehicles had occurred prior to the shooting. —Claudia Levens, Journal Sentinel, 9 Oct. 2024

However, prosecutors argued that Marks instigated the road rage and eye-witness accounts consistently stated that the unarmed Stamates never entered the car. —Quinlan Bentley, The Enquirer, 3 Oct. 2024

Selma Police Department/FaceBook A man initially interviewed as a witness at the scene of a murder has now been arrested over a year later in the apparent road rage slaying, authorities in Texas announced. —Emily Shapiro, ABC News, 20 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1988, in the meaning defined above