Word.ws English Dictionary

gate rape

gate rape noun: aggressive security screening prior to aircraft boarding.

Noun

gate rape (countable and uncountable, plural gate rapes)

  1. (derogatory, informal) Aggressive security screening prior to aircraft boarding.
    • Now, some women's advocates are referring to the situation as "Gate Rape" and speaking out against incidents like these so that other women don't have to endure the same humiliation.2010 December 3, Kim Conte, “Most Humiliating TSA Pat-Downs of the Week”, in The Stir, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2010
    • Ever since the Thanksgiving rebellion over intrusive new pat-downs that some have dubbed “gate-rape,” Americans have been debating security requirements versus privacy rights.2011 April 20, Maureen Dowd, “Stripped of Dignity”, in The New York Times, page A23

Verb

gate rape (third-person singular simple present gate rapes, present participle gate raping, simple past and past participle gate raped)

  1. (derogatory, informal) To screen (someone) aggressively prior to allowing them to board an aircraft.
    • And yet for all its tyranny, Israel doesn’t gate-rape passengers as does America's TSA.2011 January 7, Becky Akers, “How to Save Million$ Reading TNA's Website!”, in The New American, archived from the original on 13 Jan 2011
    • We need to open a bar at that airport. People need a stiff drink after being gate raped by the TSA.2012 November 18, Courtney Lilly, “A General Thanksgiving Episode”, in The Cleveland Show, season 4, episode 3, spoken by Cleveland Brown (Mike Henry)

Forms of gate rape

Noun
pluralgate rapes
Verb
third-person singular presentgate rapes
present participlegate raping
past participlegate raped
pastgate raped

Origin of gate rape

From gate (“passageway in an airport for embarking passengers”) + rape, formed to rhyme with date rape.

Questions about gate rape

What does gate rape mean?
Gate rape means aggressive security screening prior to aircraft boarding.
What part of speech is gate rape?
Gate rape can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of gate rape?
The plural of gate rape is gate rapes.

Words near gate rape in the dictionary

  1. Gate Night
  2. gate of hell
  3. gate of horn
  4. gate of ivory
  5. gate off
  6. gate rape
  7. gate raped
  8. gate rapes
  9. gate raping
  10. gate receipts
  11. gate time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gate rape (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “gate rape.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gate_rape. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.