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Meaning & use

road rash

noun·Everydayinformal

Last updated

UK/ˈrəʊd ræʃ/
US/ˈroʊd ræʃ/

Meaning

  1. noununcountableinformal

    Painful scrapes and raw skin caused by sliding or falling on a hard surface such as a road.

    Grammar: Uncountable: you can say 'a patch of road rash' or 'some road rash', but not 'a road rash'.

    Patterns

    • get road rash
    • have road rash
    • a case of road rash

    She fell off her bike and got road rash on her elbows and knees.

    The cyclist was lucky to escape with just road rash and a bruised shoulder.

    He cleaned the road rash carefully to prevent infection.

Common combinations

get road rash
You'll get road rash if you ride without knee pads.
a case of road rash
The doctor treated a bad case of road rash on his arm.
road rash on (a body part)
She had road rash on her hip after the fall.
suffer from road rash
Many skaters suffer from road rash at some point.

Synonyms and how they differ

graze
A graze is a minor scrape, often from a fall, but it does not specifically suggest contact with a road or a large area of raw skin.
abrasion
Abrasion is the medical term for any scraped area; it is more formal and not limited to road surfaces.

Word family

road rash noun
The only common form; no verb or adjective is derived from it.

Commonly confused: road rash or rash?

road rash vs rash

A rash is a red, itchy skin condition caused by illness or allergy, not by scraping. Road rash is a physical injury, not a medical rash.

Practice

After falling off his skateboard, Tom had ___ on his palms.

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