on the warpath

1. From a Native American expression for war, to be “on the warpath” is to be exceedingly angry and to be inclined to take some hostile action: “Watch out! John is on the warpath today.”

Idioms and Phrases

Furious and on a hostile course of action, as in When the meat wasn't delivered, the chef went on the warpath. This expression was an English translation of a Native American term that literally means “a path used by a war party.” Go on the war path thus meant “go to battle.” It was used in this way by James Fenimore Cooper in The Deerslayer (1841); its present hyperbolic use dates from the late 1800s.

Example Sentences

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote in a social-media post that the U.S. has now “fully embarked on the warpath against Russia.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

With Trump on the warpath against EVs, buyers and sellers in California watch warily as he tries to dismantle Biden-era incentives that supported the industry.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The Associated Press story began: “Hang on to your scalps, Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini, for 29 red-blooded young Americans are on the warpath … “

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Trump’s subject heading for one of his recent violence-inciting fundraising emails reads, “I’m on the warpath.”

Read more on Salon

Mr Swinney accused the Conservatives of being "on the warpath" against Holyrood with the new proposal.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• desperate 
• enraged www.thesaurus.com
• fierce 
• frantic 
• frenetic 
• frenzied 
• incensed 
• livid 
• raging www.thesaurus.com
• vehement 
• violent