rising

Pluralrisings (some meanings)

1. 1
   adjective

   Moving upward in position, or increasing in amount, rate, or degree.

   The rising floodwaters forced several families from their homes.

   Investors grew nervous about the rising cost of borrowing.

   Similarincreasing, mounting, climbing, soaring

   Oppositereceding

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of rise.

   The river is rising after days of heavy rain.

   Temperatures are rising steadily across the region.

   Note

   The -ing form that every other sense on this page grows out of: rise plus -ing. Each meaning of rise it carries is intransitive, so rising never takes a direct object. The river is rising, the sun is rising, she was rising from her chair. Placed before a noun, it settles into the plain adjective, as in the rising tide.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act or process of moving upward.

   The rising of the tide covered the rocks within an hour.

   Each morning the rising of the mist over the valley delighted them.

   Similarascent, lifting

   Oppositefall, descent

   Note

   Unlike most names for an action, it takes a plural easily and likes a partner, as in the risings and fallings of a thermometer. Kipling's Rewards and Fairies (1910) sets the gravest risings among sinkings, wheelings and turnings. There the plural turns a single upward movement into a rhythm of repeated ones. Pair it with fallings or sinkings when the movement goes back and forth.

4. 4
   adjective

   Soon to advance to the next academic grade, having just finished the previous one.

   The program accepts rising juniors who want a head start on college work.

   Every rising senior received a letter about graduation requirements.

   Note

   A school-calendar word that labels students by where they are headed: a rising junior has finished the year before and is about to start junior year. It is older than present-day campus talk. The Dublin University Calendar of Trinity College Dublin already spoke of "the rising Senior Freshman Class" in 1850. It always comes before the class name and has no comparative form.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   An organized act of resistance or revolt against authority.

   The failed rising left its leaders imprisoned for years.

   News of the rising spread quickly through the countryside.

   Similaruprising, revolt, rebellion, insurrection

6. 6
   adjective

   Of a bird in heraldry, shown with wings raised and standing on the tips of its feet as if about to take flight, usually drawn in profile.

   The coat of arms featured a heron rising on a field of blue.

   Above the helm sat a rising swan, wings raised and talons barely touching the wreath.

   Similarrousant, surgerant

   Note

   A blazon term with two rarer synonyms, rousant and surgerant, that may appear in its place. The wings are usually addorsed, raised back to back, though sometimes displayed, spread to either side. That variation is why the two terms appear together in its description. The word applies to birds only and takes no comparative: a bird is rising or it is not.

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