raising

Pluralraisings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of raise.

   Volunteers are raising funds to repair the old bridge.

   Raising livestock demands attention every single day.

   Note

   Two forms share one spelling, and grammar tells them apart. After a form of be, it is the progressive verb (volunteers are raising funds). As a gerund, it still takes a direct object, as in raising livestock, where the noun senses need of: the raising of a foal. Because raise means to cause to rise, something is always being raised. A thing that goes up by itself is rising, not raising.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The nurturing and cultivation of a living thing, providing food and protection from conception to maturity.

   Much like tending a sapling through every season until it stands as a full tree.

   The raising of a foal demands patience through its first vulnerable years.

   She credited her steady character to a careful, loving raising.

   Similarupbringing, rearing

   Note

   Farms and families share this sense. Placed after the name of an animal or crop, it forms open compounds like cattle raising, which name a trade or a practice rather than a single act. With an article it can mean one upbringing taken as a whole, such as a careful, loving raising, and that is where its countable use lives.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act of moving or placing something at a higher level.

   The raising of the drawbridge sealed the castle against attack.

   Engineers oversaw the raising of the satellite into a higher orbit.

   Similarlifting, hoisting, elevation

   Oppositelowering

   Note

   Engineering reports use it for a single contracted job: the Railway Magazine of 1957 notes contracts let for the raising of 16 other bridges. This countable, action-focused use separates it from the sense of elevation, which names a state or a gradual change. Here the word means the deliberate work of lifting something into a new position.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   Elevation, or the condition of being lifted to a greater height.

   The gradual raising of the terrain offered a sweeping view of the valley below.

   Geologists studied the steady raising of the coastline over millennia.

   Similarelevation, rise, uplift

   Oppositesubsidence, lowering, sinking

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The collection or gathering of something together, especially money.

   The raising of capital delayed the project until investors finally committed.

   Their relentless raising of donations rebuilt the burned-out library.

   Similarcollection, gathering, solicitation, accumulation

6. 6
   noununcountable

   The recruitment or gathering of people, especially for military service.

   The raising of an expeditionary force required months of careful organization.

   Wartime raising of volunteers swelled the ranks within weeks.

   Similarrecruitment, mobilization, enlistment, mustering, levy

   Oppositedemobilization, disbandment

7. 7
   nounUScountable or uncountable

   The work of setting up the structural frame of a building.

   The raising of the timber frame was finished before the autumn rains.

   A whole community turned out for the barn raising on Saturday morning.

   Similarerection, construction, assembly, building

   Oppositedemolition, dismantling

   Note

   An American sense, and an occasion as much as a task: one goes to help at a raising. The best-known kind is the barn raising, where neighbors gathered to lift a heavy timber frame and pin it into place. Readers outside the US may not know the bare noun, so a fuller phrase like the raising of the frame is the safer choice for them.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   A leavening substance used to make bread dough rise.

   The baker stirred a spoonful of raising into the warm flour mixture.

   Old recipes called for homemade raising kept alive from batch to batch.

   Similarleaven, leavening, starter

9. 9
   noununcountable

   The forming of sheet metal into cup-shaped, hollow, or embossed articles by hammering, stamping, or spinning.

   The raising of the chalice demanded a craftsman who could work the metal evenly.

   Modern workshops favor machine spinning over the slow raising of earlier silversmiths.

10. 10
    noununcountable

    In grammar, the movement of an argument from an embedded or subordinate clause into a main clause.

    Linguists point to raising in sentences like "She appears to know the answer."

    Subject raising distinguishes verbs like "seem" from control verbs like "try."

    Note

    A term from generative syntax, where it describes how a sentence is derived. In "John seems to be happy," John is understood as the subject of "be happy" yet surfaces as the subject of "seems"; the analysis treats it as moving up out of the lower nonfinite clause. Phonology has its own raising, the vowel-height sound change, and the two are unrelated beyond the image of going up.

11. 11
    noununcountable

    A sound change in which a vowel or consonant becomes higher, the tongue moving more elevated or closer to the roof of the mouth than before.

    The raising of the long vowel pushed its old pronunciation toward a higher quality.

    Canadian raising affects diphthongs before voiceless consonants.

    Oppositelowering

    Note

    The Great Vowel Shift is the textbook case: Middle English /eː/ raised toward /iː/ as the tongue moved closer to the palate. Phonologists also use the verb without an object, so one says that a vowel raised or raises before a certain sound. That intransitive pattern is worth copying when describing a change like this one.

12. 12
    noununcountable

    The deepening or intensifying of colors during the dyeing process.

    The dyer judged the raising of the shade by holding the cloth to the light.

    Repeated immersion handled the raising of the fabric to its final rich tone.

    Similardeepening, intensification, darkening

    Oppositefading, lightening

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