raise, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

raise n.

1. (UK Und.) a substantial amount of (stolen) money.

1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 May 1/5: He’s a gwoin to run away heself, and darfor wants to make a big raise.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 106/1: I drew the ‘quids’ by handful from my ‘kicks’ and slung them into his ‘cady.’ The ‘molls’ closed around, wondering where the ‘raise’ could have come from.

2. a tip or monetary contribution, whether given voluntarily or extorted.

1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 37: ’Ow did she make the raise?
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 128: Then we talked about the money. It was a pretty good raise — twenty dollars apiece.

3. an opportunity to pick up some money, legal or otherwise.

1827		N.-Y. Eve. Post 10 Aug. 2/4: Weed told prisoner ‘they had made a very fine raise down town, and it was best to get it out of the way as soon as they could.’ [...] [The witness] understood by their making a raise, that they had made a great dash, and obtained a good plunder.
1980		L. Kwesi Johnson ‘Want Fi Goh Rave’ in Inglan Is A Bitch 12: Mi haffi mek a raze / kaw mi come af age / an mi want fi foh rave.
1992		V. Headley Yardie 131: You can get [...] some business to hustle so you can make a raise.

4. an increase, us. in salary or wages but also in charges (see cite 1897).

1897		Eldridge & Watts Our Rival, the Rascal 232: [I]t was visible to the court that a bond of $1,000 was not sufficient to hold the rascals for trial. The judge [...] added five thousand dollars more to each bond. This ‘raise’ was too much for the Allen gang; so the two thieves were surrendered into custody .
1898		Scribner’s Mag. Oct. 489/1: A. J. Packer [...] had begun to ponder doubts of his wisdom in agreeing to the second ‘raise’ [DA].
1923		M. Watts Luther Nichols 76: Luther himself [...] could not get up the courage to touch Schulte for a raise [DA].
1949		Sat. Eve. Post 2 Apr. 121/2: They figured it was good experience for me, and that the extra dough would keep me from hitting them for a raise [DA].
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 256: Mush Head might even give me a raise now, though I doubt it.

5. (US black) an arm; thus on your left raise, on your left-hand side.

1946

Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 216: Gun the snatcher on your left raise.

6. (US black) a pocket.

1940		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 27 Apr. 7/7: You can lay all the iron you have in your raise, that the cat’s in the groove.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 113: He’s lugging twenty ‘G’s’ in his ‘raise’.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 29: I was ’holess, without a sou in my raise.

7. (US black/campus) one’s parents.

1972		D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 77: raise n. parents; guardians.
1982		Gettysburg (PA) Times 1 June 9/2: Students talk about their ‘raise,’ or their parents.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 34: raise ‘parents’.

In phrases

make a raise (v.)

1. (US Und.) to pick a pocket; to rob.

1823		‘One Who Knows’ Inside Out; or, An Interior View of the N.-Y. State Prison 108: When [a thief] makes, as he terms it, a raise, (meaning perhaps a profitable theft).
1837		N.Y. Herald 27 Jan. 2/1: I’ve been lucky tonight — I’ve made a raise of $20 and (touching his pocket) I have it here.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 40: You’re as good a knuck as ever frisked as well! Why don’t you make a raise?
1862		Alexandria Gaz. (DC) 19 May 1/1: Some sharper, who had [...] been watching an opportunity to make a raise, overtook him and told him [etc].
1873		A.S. Evans A la Calif. 298: When one of these fellows makes a raise by ‘rolling a drunk’ (i.e. taking the valuables from the pockets of a drunken man on the sidewalk).

2. (US gambling) to fund a fellow-gambler who has lost all his money.

1837

N.Y. Herald 5 Oct. 2/3: When a [fellow gambler] is cleaned out — has lost all — they ‘make a raise,’ as it is called — one planks down his $50, another his $100, another his $200, and thus set him up with $5000 to start a [faro] bank, and try his luck again.

3. (US) to obtain money, in a non-criminal manner; to secure something.

1838		J.C. Neal Charcoal Sketches (1865) 96: I made a raise of a horse.
1845		J.J. Hooper Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1851) 48: The chances were altogether favorable for making a ‘raise,’ without fear of detection.
1848		G.F. Ruxton Life in the Far West (1849) 13: The Pawnees made a raise of a dozen mules, wagh!
1865		M. MacFie Vancouver Island and British Columbia 416: The slang in vogue in the mining regions is imported mainly from California, and is often as expressive as it is original. [...] When one has run off to avoid paying his debts, he has ‘skedaddled,’ [...] if hard-up, he wants to ‘make a raise.’.
1878		B. Hogan Life and Adventures of Ben Hogan 51: He was again ready to make a raise in whatever manner might present itself.
1882		‘Paris Inside Out’ in Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 23 Dec. 6/3: ‘I can make a raise’.
1900		S. Handsaker in Pioneer Life 35: The two brothers ‘made quite a raise’ in the California mines soon after their discovery [DA].
a.1948		(con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 10: I works mah hands tiahed day and night and can’t evah make a raise.