Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US black) to keep watch; to give a warning.

1992

R. Price Clockers 4: Demoted to raising up – looking out for the Fury.

2. (US prison) to be given leave or parole to leave a prison.

1970		G. Cain Blueschild Baby 21: [I] heard he was in prison. [...] ‘When did you raise?’ ‘Three weeks ago’.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 84: Darcie said she was sure glad she was raising up any day.

3. (US black) to go to the lavatory.

1997–2002

Hope College ‘Dict. of New Terms’ 🌐 raise up v. To ‘raise up’ is to go to the bathroom.

4. (US black teen) to get out of the way.

1995		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 8: raise up off – remove oneself from another person’s space: ‘Raise up off me before I have to fight you’.
2001		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 9: RAISE UP -- step away from a threat: ‘Man, you better RAISE UP before I hit you!’.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] You heard the lasdy [...] Raise up outta here.

5. (US black) to prepare oneself, e.g. for a fight.

2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 better raise up Definition: get ready to stand up cuz we are going to fight. Example: What you say, dog. oh no you better raise up or i’m gonna kick your azz.
2002		(con. 1998–2000) J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 87: Cain’t a muthafucka play some basketball without everybody raising up like they all bad and shit?

6. (US) to alert, to arouse suspicion.

2005

R. Cea No Lights, No Sirens 155: ‘[W]e used the cover of darkness [...] we didn’t want to raise anyone up inside the bar.

(US Und.) an armed robbery or hold-up.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

see under relevant n.

(W.I.) to make trouble, to foster an argument.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

(orig. US) to cause a commotion, whether problematic or hedonistic.

1840		St Louis Pennant 2 May n.p.: Why have we every reason to believe that Adam and Eve were both rowdies? Because [...] they both raised Cain [DA].
1845		in N.P. Rogers Coll. Writings (1849) 324: They raise the money, by sort of yeas and nays — as we say ‘raise the wind’ — ‘raise the d—l’ — ‘raise Cain’— or ‘corn’ .
1858		G.W. Harris ‘The Cockneys Baggage’ N.Y. Picayune XI Feb. in Inge (1967) 78: Instead of raising Cain generally as Cockney had been doing, he betook himself to zealously writing notes.
1869		Man about Town 25 Sept. 21/3: He has foreshortened here, deepened the shadows there, heightened the lights in one place, lowered the tone in another, and ‘raised Cain’ generally.
1869		H.B. Stowe Oldtown Folks 116: I’d just as soon have the red dragon in the Revelation a comin’ down on my house as a boy! If I don’t work hard enough now, I’d like to know, without having a boy around raisin’ gineral Cain.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 323: When the rowdy is in earnest and his blood is up, he has a terrible term by which to designate the nature of his action: he raises Cain.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Oct. 9/2: He flung his hat through the glass door of the manager’s room; shouted for all hands; went to the Egyptian Hall and kissed the man-woman nine times ; dined at both Coffee Palaces, and then polka’d over to Dalveon’s and raised up Cain in general.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 2 Sept. 7/1: [headline] the masked robber again. / He Raises Cain in a Farm House and Cleans out a Safe for its Law Papers .
1883		R.L. Stevenson Treasure Island 20: I’m a man that has lived rough, and I’ll raise Cain.
1894		J. London Tramp Diary in Jack London On the Road (1979) 38: A couple of cowboys or cattle punchers are raising cain generally.
1894		Mirror of Life 20 Jan. 9: [pic. caption] Texans raise Cain with Deported Chinese.
1900		Marvel 8 Dec. 28: Them wild cats are gwine to raise Cain, I guess!
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surrey Hills, NSW) 6 Nov. 4/3: The cheated punters would raise Cain.
1907		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 xxiii: Raise cain, go broke, wake up an’ begin punching cows all over again.
1912		Van Loan ‘Loosening Up of Hogan’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 162: Spending too much money and raising Cain.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 31 Jan. 4/2: We wish it would [cause a beer famine] for then the public would raise Cain .
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 71: Them whites will raise ructions [...] They’ll raise ol’ Cain ef they’re out out for a parcel o’ Ragheads.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 115: They raised Cain — smashed up the cells windows, tore up sheets and books, shouted ‘Up the Republic!’ day and night through the empty window-frames.
1936		(con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 746: He couldn’t understand why his fellow mechanics wanted to [...] get drunk and raise cain on Saturday nights.
1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 15 Mar. 9/5: Our girls [...] drink and smoke amd cheat and cuss raising cain, all kinds of fuss [...] they have no claim to fame but love that jiving game.
1947		S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 216: My wife and my dad are simply raising Cain about my wanting to publicly stand back of you for – you know.
1954		R. Service ‘Violet de Vere’ in Carols of an Old Codger 54: She was hauled before the Bench for breachin’ of the peace, / Which signifies araisin’ Cain, an’ beatin’ up the police.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 177: That Trotter woman is raising Cain.
1960		‘Hergé’ Tintin and the Red Sea Sharks 6: Do you imagine I’m going to let that little pest raise Cain in my house?
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 132: Christy blocked him and started raising Cain at the top of her voice about how terrible her movie was.
1977		‘John le Carré’ Honourable Schoolboy 155: ‘He’s raising Cain in Taipei,’ Craw said.
1983		G. Tate ‘Electric Miles’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 68: I won’t deny raising the spectre of Cain over a few of my brother critics’ heads.
1993		S. Armitage ‘No convictions...’ in Book of Matches ) ...nothing / to raise Cain or make a song and dance about[29].
1996		Steve Earle ‘Ellis Unit One’ 🎵 I raised some Cain when I come back to town.

(US) to hurry, to go quickly.

1927

(con. 1914–18) L. Nason Three Lights from a Match 178: You better start raisin’ dust. Boy, he just thirsts for a look at you two.

(US) to cause as much trouble as one can.

1848		Rural Repository (Hudson, NY) 25 Mar. 110/3: The boys do just as they like; play acter [sic], catch flies, raise Hob, and he never flogs.
1858		Cleveland Morn. Leader (OH) 24 Aug. 2/2: Such a drain would raise hob with most of the Lake harbors.
1863		Western Border Life 299: You ’d let em break your dishes, and tear your nice traps, and raise hob generally on the place.
1874		M.J. Holmes West Lawn 163: The governor is OK He’ll wait and so will I and if you must say no, he won’t raise hob, but I will.
1885		M.J. Holmes Dora Freeman 119: There’s only one person I’d have for a step-mother any how, and that’s Aunt Dora. Guy, wouldn’t I raise hob with anybody else.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 30 Nov. 6/4: I fear that the devil [...] has been hunting for a weak spot in our spiritual fence to [...] raise hob with some of the old sheep and goats.
1895		J.K. Bangs Idiot 92: But what prompted nature to raise hob with Westchester County millions of years ago, and to let it sleep like Rip Van Winkle ever since?
1905		Rock Is. Argus (IL) 22 Nov. 4/3: ‘You can state the case if you wish, but tomorrow I’ll raise hob with the police for not spotting you’.
1912		Polk Co. Obs. (Monmouth, OR) 26 Apr. 11/2: We certainly don’t want to find oil in a hole [...] for that would [...] raise hob with all our calculations.
1921		Carson City Dly Appeal (NV) 20 Jan. 2/2: Japan doesn’t raise hob because Canada has no welcome for her subjects.
1932		D. Hammett ‘A Man Called Spade’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 304: Chances are whoever’s handling the estate’ll raise hob if I send them a bill for any decent amount of money.
1946		in A.J. Liebling Honest Rainmaker (1991) 142: The current Newsprint shortage is raising hob.
1977		M. Harrison I, Sherlock Holmes 134: Miss would certainly raise hob if Papa didn’t make her an allowance of five thousand.
1982		J.Y. & E.N. Case O.D. Young and Amer. Enterprise 330: Not, in the long run certainly, for consumer goods whose import would raise hob with the creditor country’s own producers.

see cut up jack v.

see up the ante under ante n.

(Aus.) to discover gold.

1859		W. Kelly Life in Victoria I 222: They had not, to use a current phrase, ‘raised the colour.’.
1881		G.C. Evans Stories Told Around the Camp Fire 90: They had been very unfortunate at the new diggings, having sunk three holes without raising the color [Moore 2000].
1885		H. Finch-Hatton Advance Aus.! 160: He may toil for ten hours a day and not raise the colour, while his neighbour in the next claim ... is getting an ounce of gold to the dish [Moore 2000].
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 181: There was one [i.e. a race track] at Kalgoorlie almost from the first day they raised the colour — discovered gold, in Aussie slanguage.

see lift one’s/the/an elbow under lift v.

see fly the flag v.² (1)

1. (also raise the breeze(s), whistle up a breeze) to obtain money, to obtain a loan; thus wind-raising, obtaining a loan.

1784		Rambler’s Mag. July 279/1: Renard was one day last week in the city, attempting to raise the wind among the Jews, but they were not to be had.
1790		M.P. Andrews Better Late than Never 12: Write your uncle, promise reformation [...] get him to raise the wind.
1800		Sporting Mag. Oct. XVII 23/1: You may now and then – if you can raise the wind – sport a hired curricle and pair.
1817		M. Edgeworth Love and Law I ii: Here’s bills plenty – long bills, and short bills – but even the kites, which I can fly as well as any man, won’t raise the wind for me now.
1827		J. Kenney Spring and Autumn I iii: Miss Zoe Zephyr, to raise the wind, has put your note in the hands of her attorney.
1832		Satirist (London) 8 Jan. 14/1: I contrived to ‘raise the wind’ by ‘Matrimony;’ but I soon spent Mrs. M.’s jointure.
1834		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Mar. 22 1/3: He is allowed to strip [tobacco] until his genius can invent some new method of rasing the wind.
1837		Sydney Monitor 18 Jan. 4/1: Thus, between smoking, raising the wind, eating, sleeping, and love making, they pass through this valley of tears.
1839		J.S. Jones People’s Lawyer I i: I wish I could raise the wind somewhere.
1840		R.B. Peake Devil In London I iii: Come here, Jims. I must raise the wind for to-night; run with these to Uncle Balls.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 8 Apr. 2/2: Where did he raise the wind? [...] His friends [...] say they never knew him to be in possession of so large a sum.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 July 3/1: Done out of both cash and comfort, aud, being balked of raising the wind, she whisked out of court.
1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 215: I leaned [...] to the [...] equally insidious method of doing bills at three months, which, with liberal interest, an immediate premium, and a friend’s name at the bank, I found an easy and commodious device for raising the wind.
1854		N.Y. Clipper 7 Jan. 3/3: [O]ur legal friends have winked at the successful efforts of Mr. Perham to ‘raise the wind’.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 251/1: They ‘raised the wind’ to an extent adequate to some alteration of their appearances, and got bills printed.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 459: Several persons, unable to raise this amount, were rusticating in the parish prison, where they were doomed to remain one year [...] if they were unable ‘to raise the wind.’.
1879		Merthyr Teleg. 28 Mar. 4/5: But what of men’s part [...] Oh! their duty [...] is to ‘raise a breeze’.
1882		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 1 Sept. 7/3: He would have spent al his money and then ‘borrowed’ mine, never leaving off a spree so long as he could ‘raise the wind’.
1887		G. Davis Recoll. Sea-Wanderer 401: The thieves and pickpockets of both sexes would cheerfully contribute to the cost of making the addition, for it would immensely increase their incomes, or in other words, it would raise the wind.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 21 Dec. 8/4: So we had to try and raise the wind / By taking gonophs down.
1890		Bird o’ Freedom 15 Jan. 8: [advert] To raise the wind but how? Sell your cast off clothes.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 13 Jan. 5/6: Household gods [...] except for ‘raising the wind’ and pawnbroking purposes, would be at an alarming discount therein.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Jan. 10/2: He committed the crime two days before the date fixed for his wedding, so that he was evidently trying to raise the wind for the honeymoon.
1901		D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 102: Sebastian (from his pedestal). Have you no desire to raise the working classes? Dolly (to herself). I’ve no desire to raise anything at this moment — except the wind.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Oct. 13/2: I was ‘stony’ – so despairing, I was forced to ‘raise the breezes’; / It was time I did the mandarin in Sydney’s city streets; / So I struck your camp at sunset, and wheezed out the same old wheezes / As I’ve wheezed them o’er and o’er upon the same old country beats.
c.1914		C. Mac Garvey Green Line and the Little Yellow Road in Mac Thomáis (1982) 159: Buried deep in discontent, for they hadn’t got a cent, / And they knew not where or how to raise the wind.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 141: Sorry, Jack. With a heart and a half if I could raise the wind anyhow.
1925		E. Jervis 25 Years in Six Prisons 172: Another little dodge for raising the wind was to order goods and intercept the messenger sent with them to a bogus address.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Whistling up a breeze, to pawn or sell everything for bail or attorney money.
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 200: A day was too short a time to raise the wind.
1940		S. Lister Mistral Hotel (1951) 200: If at the end of three days you have not been able to raise the wind, I shall be compelled to hand you over to the police.
1953		D. Cusack Caddie 223: I’ll pop me clobber termorrer ter raise the wind for yer.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 115: Mysterious phonecalls raising the wind for some pal in trouble.

2. to create a rumour, to make up stories.

1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 157: Puffing is a delicate art [...] Even those ‘professors who have raised the wind and themselves most successfully by puffing will admit that the pratice of the art becomes every day more difficult’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 598: Because if they didn’t believe they’d go straight to heaven when they die they’d try to live better – at least, so I think. That’s the juggle on which the p. p.’s raise the wind on false pretences.