rage

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Violent uncontrolled anger.

   “Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.”

   “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 by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.”

   “[…] rage is not only impotent by definition, it is the mode in which impotence becomes active in its last stage of final despair.”

2. (countable, uncountable)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.”

   “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.”

   “Here and there were certain unmistakable derniers cris, some of them undoubtedly destined - had the world pursued its expected course - to become the rage of tomorrow; others, I would say, a dead loss from their very inception.”

   “‘She has big breasts’, Chuck said. ‘Who? Patty? Oh yes.’ Hentman nodded. ‘Well, it’s that operation they give in Hollywood and New York. It’s more the rage now than the dilation, and she’s had that done, too.’”

3. (Australia, New-Zealand, US, countable, slang, uncountable)An exciting and boisterous party.

   “That evening, Felix and Trish Homer invited me to the Sundancer for "a bit of a rage."”

4. (countable, uncountable)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.”

   “The list of rappers affiliated with rage has exploded in the subsequent 18 months, and several seem poised to break out in 2023.”

   “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 flourishes of early Playboi Carti — the Charlotte, North Carolina born producer manages to tread new terrain, constructing a sonic identity that feels deliriously right now.”

5. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Any vehement passion.

   “And your true rights be termed a poet's rage”

   “in great rage of pain”

   “convulsed with a rage of grief”

   “He appeased the rage of hunger with some scraps of broken meat.”

verb

1. (intransitive)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.”

2. (figuratively, sometimes)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 sandy spume.”

   “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.”

   “Though the storm raged up the East Coast, it has become increasingly apparent that New Jersey took the brunt of it.”

   “Debate has raged over whether Glass and smartglasses like it have any viable real-world use cases for consumers, or are more interesting to businesses where workers need hands-free access to information.”

3. (Australia, New-Zealand, US, slang)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.”

4. (obsolete, rare)To enrage.

   “The King is come, deale mildly with his youth, / For young hot Colts, being rag'd, do rage the more.”