ON THE WARPATH Definition & Meaning

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on the warpath

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.”

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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.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

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

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

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

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And that means that President Biden needs to go on the warpath just like dozens of leading Democratic officials and strategists are asking him to.

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"If I see any more of this from Trump ... I'm gonna have to go on the warpath," Jones warned.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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