rager

[ rey-jer ]

noun

1. Slang. a party attended by a large number of people, especially students, and featuring copious amounts of alcohol:

   Your mom is letting you throw a legit rager in your backyard the day after graduation?

   If you're in a dorm, there's no better way to use up the flat beer from last night's rager than this easy biscuit recipe.

2. Slang: Vulgar. a powerful erection or state of extreme sexual arousal.
3. a person who frequently expresses violent or uncontrolled anger, often with little provocation and in the form of verbal abuse:

   All my kids had tantrums at the normal ages, but my third was a born rager.

   The immediacy of anger violently expressed means the rager is no longer thinking.

Word History and Origins

Origin of rager¹

First recorded in 1400–50; 1985–90 rager fordef 1; 2000–05 rager fordef 2; rag(e) ( def ) + -er ⁷( def )

Example Sentences

Just don’t look for Sage Against the Machine at traditional rager venues.

From Los Angeles Times

Their previous film, for instance, the 2020 sorta-documentary “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” sets up a scenario — the final night at a Vegas dive bar, on the eve of the 2016 presidential election — and populates it with real drinkers, who have a real rager on camera.

From New York Times

In her advanced age, she drops dead from shock — or perhaps secondhand smoke — after the wild rager that the kids throw in the house proves too much for her to bear.

From Los Angeles Times

Just don’t look for Sage Against the Machine at traditional rager venues.

From Los Angeles Times

When Ysabel Jurado invited me to her staff appreciation party this past Saturday, I expected to walk into a well-earned rager.

From Los Angeles Times