rash
1 Americanadjective
-
acting or tending to act too hastily or without due consideration.
- Synonyms:
- foolhardy, indiscreet, precipitate, incautious, venturous, reckless, impetuous, hasty
- Antonyms:
- cautious
-
characterized by or showing too great haste or lack of consideration.
rash promises.
noun
-
rashes
plural
-
an eruption or efflorescence on the skin.
-
a multitude of instances of something occurring more or less during the same period of time.
a rash of robberies last month.
adjective
-
acting without due consideration or thought; impetuous
-
characterized by or resulting from excessive haste or impetuosity
a rash word
noun
-
pathol any skin eruption
-
a series of unpleasant and unexpected occurrences
a rash of forest fires
Usage
What does rash mean? Rash describes acting too quickly and without proper planning, as in James was rash when he decided to quit his job after just one hard day. Rash also describes a great haste or a lack of consideration, such as Sahad avoided making rash decisions by doing a lot of research first. A rash is a skin condition, such as bumps or a red area, like you might get if you touch poison ivy. A rash is also several instances of something that occur at the same or nearly the same time, such as a rash of snowstorms over a week or a rash of electronic sales during the winter holidays. Example: He always jumps head first into rash decisions, but sometimes it works out.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of rash1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; cognate with Dutch, German rasch “quick, brisk,” Old Norse rǫskr “brave”
Origin of rash2
1700–10; < French rache (obsolete), Old French rasche skin eruption, derivative of raschier to scratch, ultimately < Latin rādere to scratch
Explanation
A rash is something that spreads like wild fire — red itchy skin or a series of unfortunate events. It can also describe an impulsive, wild decision. As an adjective, rash has meant "quick, vigorous" since the 1300s by way of Scotland. The meaning shifted to "reckless" a few hundred years later, and can still be used that way — a "rash decision" is a sudden, not well thought out one. Rash, the noun that no one wants on their skin, came a few hundred years after that, but from the French word rache which at some point meant "ringworm." Ringworm still gives us a red, itchy rash. Fun! Rash can also mean a lot of unpleasant things happening in a short amount of time, like robberies or earthquakes.
Vocabulary lists containing rash
The Balcony Scene from "Romeo and Juliet"
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"Marriage is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“It would have been highly presumptuous for me just to make a rash decision about what we were going to do without listening,” he said of the compact.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
He added the health board were "unable to determine with certainty whether the rash could have been prevented".
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
But it has also sparked a rash of legal complaints, including from two women whose families say they were seriously injured in July on the ride in Valencia, just north of Los Angeles.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
People infected with typhus typically develop symptoms within one to two weeks, which may include a fever, headache, rash and body aches.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
The anchors switch to news about a rash of robberies in a neighborhood on the other side of town.
From "Amina's Voice" by Hena Khan
Manganiello detailed debilitating abdominal pain, fevers, rashes, headaches, fatigue and ulcers in his digestive tract that caused bleeding and led to countless colonoscopies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Back pain, rashes, harassment and a bad smell.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
People showed strange boils and rashes that volunteers photographed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Rhapsido, a treatment for chronic rashes that was approved in the US last September and then in the European Union at the end of April, has already generated $64 million in sales, Novartis said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
I’d taken to wearing socks on my hands for sleeping to cut back on bites and rashes, and as I peeled them off, I used one to wipe his nose.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
As written, the recipe needs nothing more than a generous swipe of cultured butter and a plate of soft scrambled eggs, maybe a rasher of bacon if you’re feeling traditional.
From Salon ● Nov. 4, 2025
Braised wagyu beef cheek was less tender than it should have been, but butter and dark chocolate enriched the sauce, cambozola sharpened the accompanying gratin, and a crisp rasher of speck capped the dish.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2018
It didn’t have the toothsome texture or smoky depth of a rasher of butcher’s dry-cured bacon, but I’d happily buy it again as an alternative to “nitro-meat”.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 1, 2018
Matt made a sandwich with two angus patties with red onion, cheddar, caramelized onions, rasher bacon, grilled pineapple, a fried egg, tomato chili jam and aioli wrapped in lettuce.
From Time ● Aug. 4, 2015
Mabel wrapped up some biscuits and a rasher of bacon.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
Show business is fear-driven, and that fuels Deborah and Ava’s rashest decisions more than anything else.
From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2025
But there were officials in place who could temper his rashest impulses.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 22, 2019
It wasn’t remotely the same, of course, and the overstatement rebounded against Strauss, who had never said anything of the kind but was soon being held accountable for the rashest words of his admirers.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 17, 2016
He was the prettiest, the brashest, the baddest, the fastest, the loudest, the rashest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2016
Fly far, and live; tempt not his matchless might: The bravest shrink to cowards in his sight; 40The rashest dare not rouse him up: Who then Shall turn on me, among the sons of men?
From The Poetical Works of Edward Young, Volume 2 by Edward Young
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
