rampage
verbEtymology From Scots rampage, equivalent to ramp + -age. Perhaps influenced by Middle English rampnen (“to force, ram”), from Old English *hrampian, from Proto-West Germanic *hrampōn (“to obstruct, hinder”), see ramp.
1
To move about wildly or violently.
- In the hip science of ultrasmall nanotechnology, fantastical future possibilities like rampaging nanorobots capture the most attention, but the first fruits of the field have been more mundane: tiny bits of mostly ordinary stuff that just sit there.2005 February 22, Kenneth Chang, “Tiny Is Beautiful: Translating 'Nano' Into Practical”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2021:
- It is a sunny morning in Amman and the three uniformed judges in Jordan’s state security court are briskly working their way through a pile of slim grey folders on the bench before them. Each details the charges against 25 or so defendants accused of supporting the fighters of the Islamic State (Isis), now rampaging across Syria and Iraq under their sinister black banners and sending nervous jitters across the Arab world.2014 November 27, Ian Black, “Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis”, in The Guardian:
- Derived terms
- rampager