Known as Croom Road, the highway runs 15.34 miles (24.69 km) from the Charles–Prince George's county line near Aquasco north to U.S. Route 301 (US 301) in Marlton.

The highway was extended south and west through Charles County to near Waldorf in the mid-1950s.

MD 382 was truncated at the county line to achieve its present length in the late 1980s.

MD 382 heads northeast as an 18-foot-wide (5.5 m) two-lane undivided road and intersects MD 381 (Brandywine Road) at the hamlet of Poplar Hill north of Aquasco, where the highway expands to 24 feet (7.3 m) in width.

MD 382 veers away from the river and passes the historic home Brookefield of the Berrys in the hamlet of Naylor.

MD 382 veers northwest and intersects CSX's Pope's Creek Subdivision railroad line at-grade and crosses swampy Charles Branch as it runs along the edge of the suburban residential development of Marlton.

[4][5] The extension of the highway south to Candy Hill Road at Naylor was started in 1930.