rampage
Americannoun
-
rampages
plural
-
violent or excited behavior that is reckless, uncontrolled, or destructive.
-
a state of violent anger or agitation.
The smallest mistake sends him into a rampage. The river has gone on a rampage and flooded the countryside.
verb (used without object)
-
rampages,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rampaged,
past participle, past
-
rampaging
present participle
verb
noun
-
angry or destructive behaviour
-
behaving violently or destructively
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
rampagesimple
-
rampagessimple
-
have rampagedperfect
-
has rampagedperfect
-
am rampagingprogressive
-
are rampagingprogressive
-
is rampagingprogressive
-
have been rampagingperfect progressive
-
has been rampagingperfect progressive
Past
-
rampagedsimple
-
had rampagedperfect
-
was rampagingprogressive
-
were rampagingprogressive
-
had been rampagingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rampage
Explanation
A rampage is when a group of people is destructive and out of control, like an angry, violent riot following an unpopular political decision. A single individual can go on a rampage, wreaking havoc and destruction, but the word most often describes the actions of an angry mob. You can also use rampage as a verb, as when furious football fans rampage through a town overturning cars and setting things on fire. The word was originally Scottish, from the Middle English ramp, "rave or rush wildly about."
Vocabulary lists containing rampage
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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:
Noriko, you may remember, miraculously survived Godzilla’s rampage through Tokyo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
Since the Thursday rampage, Sherry Lauer, 56, has been watching her five-year-old granddaughter for signs of how she is processing the tragedy.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2026
The police spokeswoman added the force believe the incident to be a "rampage".
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Bridges is another key to New York’s playoff rampage, a stopper on defense who’s suddenly reborn offensively.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
According to Louisiana’s grandmother, the authorities were on a rampage, and it would be a good idea for Louisiana to be “far, far away from the Elefante homestead.”
From "Raymie Nightingale" by Kate DiCamillo
The narrative backdrop is that after 32 years of who-coulda-thunk-it rampages, humankind is tired of dealing with the darned things.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2025
Eggs: So, that whole thing about the U.S. trying to import more eggs as bird flu rampages across American livestock centers?
From Slate ● Mar. 5, 2025
Yet the theme persists, from the singular destructiveness of the kaiju to the way that people onscreen watch their rampages through televisions and the Internet, observers of the existential changes upending the world.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 3, 2023
Asked if Netanyahu agreed with the security chiefs' designation of the rampages as "terrorism", his office referred Reuters to that statement and declined further comment.
From Reuters ● Jun. 25, 2023
Even his gleaning rampages were not forbidden by anything but custom and tradition.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
Since then, Nigeria has allowed hundreds of American troops to be posted to the country to train Nigerian forces and coordinate targeting of militant groups that have rampaged through the Lake Chad Basin for years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
Generally regarded as the best dozen ever assembled, with 11 players having won major titles, the US rampaged to an 18½-9½ victory at Walton Heath in Surrey.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2025
By Sunday, Palworld was one of the most popular games on the planet as players rampaged through a cruel world of chickens and squirrels engaged in shootouts.
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2024
By the first winter wave of the pandemic, COVID-19 rampaged through swaths of California, sending patients to the hospital in droves, overwhelming Los Angeles’ morgues with bodies and prompting officials to issue new stay-at-home orders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2023
The Arkansas National Guard remained at Central High, and hooligans rampaged through the streets.
From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals
If he survives the rampaging zombies, there’s a major life change on the horizon: His girlfriend has recently told him she is pregnant, and he’s skeptical about the potential of fatherhood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
Adria Arjona stars in Adam Wingard’s flimsy action feature about a woman facing down a group of rampaging, programmable fighters that have escaped from a mad doctor’s lab.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Gibson-Park darted through the gold shirts to score after Keenan produced a superb try-saving tackle to deny the rampaging Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii a certain try.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
Along with such franchise tropes as face-huggers and rampaging xenomorphs, ship design was the key area where homage overtook the series’ emphasis on new locations, lifeforms and themes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
And out of the dark beneath the trees surged a deeper darkness: a huge rampaging menace in bear form.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
