on the warpath

very angry. The boss is on the warpath again. Watch out! l am on the warpath about setting goals and standards again.

angry and ready to argue or fight Hollywood studios are on the warpath, trying to bring an end to the illegal copying of movies. The little girl went on the warpath in defense of her brother.

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.