on the warpath

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

on the warpath

1. (idiomatic) Very angry or upset and eager for confrontation.
   • 1932 June 6, “Religion: Churches v. Council”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 2010-10-27:

     Last year a committee of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America issued a report guardedly approving Birth Control. […] [M]any Presbyterians heartily disapproved. Last week the Presbyterian General Assembly met in Denver with Philadelphia's Rev. H. McAllister Griffiths and a corps of Fundamentalists on the warpath.

   • 2006 October 11, Colin Brown, “Fears grow for waterways as canal jobs are cut”, in The Independent‎:

     Boating enthusiasts, walkers and others who enjoy relaxing by canals were on the warpath last night after British Waterways announced plans to cut 180 staff.

   • 2010 November 11, Helen Pidd, Mark Sweney, Tania Branigan, “Taking Spooks seriously: Beijing on the warpath over BBC spy drama”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     But BBC executives say they could never have predicted the latest programme to send Chinese officials on the warpath: the corporation's far-fetched spy drama Spooks.

• enraged, furious

• war footing