RAISE, v.t. raze. [This word occurs often in the Gothic version of the gospels, Luke 3:8. John 6:40, 44. These verbs appear to be the L. gradior, gressus, without the prefix. L. to go to walk, to pass.]

1. To lift; to take up; to heave; to lift from a low or reclining posture; as, to raise a stone or weight; to raise the body in bed. The angel smote Peter on the side and raised hint up. – Acts xii.
2. To set upright; as, to raise a mast.
3. To set up; to erect; to set on its foundations and put together; as, to raise the frame of a house.
4. To build; as, to raise a city, a fort, a wall, &c. I will raise forts against thee. – Is. xxix. Amos ix.
5. To rebuild. They shall raise up the former desolations. – Is. lxi.
6. To form to some highth by accumulation; as, to raise a heap of stones. – Josh viii.
7. To make; to produce; to amass; as, to raise a great estate out of small profits.
8. To enlarge; to amplify. – Shak.
9. To exalt; to elevate in condition; as, to raise one from a low estate.
10. To exalt; to advance; to promote in rank or honor; as, to raise one to an office of distinction. This gentleman came to be raised to great titles. – Clarendon.
11. To enhance; to increase; as, to raise the value of coin; to raise the price of goods.
12. To increase in current value. The plate pieces of eight were raised three pence in the piece. – Temple.
13. To excite; to put in motion or action; as, to raise a tempest or tumult. He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind. – Ps. cvii.
14. To excite to sedition, insurrection, war or tumult; to stir up. – Acts xxiv. Æneas then employs his pains / In parts remote to raise the Tuscan swains. – Dryden.
15. To rouse; to awake; to stir up. They shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. – Job xiv.
16. To increase in strength; to excite from languor or weakness. The pulse is raised by stimulants, sometimes by venesection.
17. To give beginning of importance to; to elevate into reputation; as, to raise a family.
18. To bring into being. God vouchsafes to raise another world / From him. – Milton.
19. To bring from a state of death to life. He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our Justification. – Rom. iv. 1 Cor. xv.
20. To call into view from the state of separate spirits; as, to raise a spirit by spells and incantations. – Sandys.
21. To invent and propagate; to originate; to occasion; as, to raise a report or story.
22. To set up; to excite; to begin by loud utterance as, to raise a shout or cry. – Dryden.
23. To utter loudly; to begin to sound or clamor. He raised his voice against the measures of administration.
24. To utter with more strength or elevation; to swell. Let the speaker raise his voice.
25. To collect; to obtain; to bring into a sum or fund. Government raises money by taxes, excise and imposts. Private persons and companies raise money for their enterprises.
26. To levy; to collect; to bring into service; as, to raise troops; to raise an army. – Milton.
27. To give rise to. – Milton.
28. To cause to grow; to procure to be produced, bred or propagated; as, to raise wheat, barley, hops, &c.; to raise horses, oxen or sheep. – New England. [The English now use grow in regard to crops; as, to grow wheat. This verb intransitive has never been use in New England in a transitive sense, until recently some persons have adopted it from the English books. We always use raise, but in New England it is never applied to the breeding of the human race, as it is in the southern states. In the north we say to raise wheat, and to raise horses or cattle, but not to raise men; though we say to raise a sickly child.]
29. To cause to swell, heave and become light; as, to raise dough or paste by yeast or leaven. Miss Liddy can dance a jig and raise paste. – Spectator.
30. To excite; to animate with fresh vigor; as, to raise the spirits or courage.
31. To ordain; to appoint; or to call to and prepare; to furnish with gifts and qualifications suited to a purpose; a Scriptural sense. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren. – Deut. xviii. For this cause have I raised thee up, to show in thee my power. – Exod. ix. Judg. ii.
32. To keep in remembrance. – Ruth iv.
33. To cause to exist by propagation. – Matth. xxii.
34. To incite; to prompt. – Ezra i.
35. To increase in intensity or strength; as, to raise the heat of a furnace.
36. In seamen's language, to elevate, as an object by gradual approach to it; to bring to be seen at a greater angle; opposed to laying; as, to raise the land; to raise a point. – Mar. Dict. To raise a purchase, in seamen's language, is to dispose instruments or machines in such a manner as to exert any mechanical force required. – Mar. Dict. To raise a siege, is to remove a besieging army and relinquish an attempt to take the place by that mode of attack, or to cause the attempt to be relinquished.

1. To cause to rise; to bring from a lower to a higher place; to lift upward; to elevate; to heave; as, to raise a stone or weight.
   
   
   Hence, figuratively: --

   (a)

2. To cause to rise up, or assume an erect position or posture; to set up; to make upright; as, to raise a mast or flagstaff.
   
   
   Hence: --

   (a)

3. To cause to arise, grow up, or come into being or to appear; to give rise to; to originate, produce, cause, effect, or the like.
   
   
   Hence, specifically: --

   (a)

4. To cause to rise, as by the effect of leaven; to make light and spongy, as bread.
   
   

   Miss Liddy can dance a jig, and raise paste. Spectator.

5. To cause (the land or any other object) to seem higher by drawing nearer to it; as, to raise Sandy Hook light.
   
   
   (b)
6. To create or constitute; as, to raise a use, that is, to create it.
   
   
   Burrill.

   To raise a blockade (Mil.), to remove or break up a blockade, either by withdrawing the ships or forces employed in enforcing it, or by driving them away or dispersing them. -- To raise a check, note, bill of exchange, etc., to increase fraudulently its nominal value by changing the writing, figures, or printing in which the sum payable is specified. -- To raise a siege, to relinquish an attempt to take a place by besieging it, or to cause the attempt to be relinquished. -- To raise steam, to produce steam of a required pressure. -- To raise the wind, to procure ready money by some temporary expedient. [Colloq.] -- To raise Cain, or To raise the devil, to cause a great disturbance; to make great trouble. [Slang]

   Syn. -- To lift; exalt; elevate; erect; originate; cause; produce; grow; heighten; aggravate; excite.