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Glite Dictionary
to raise Cain

to raise Cain

1 8.6
To make a noisy public protest
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : armar un escándalo
  • During the meeting, the employees raised Cain about the unfair treatment they received.
  • raise Cain all

Examples

  • These boys have raised Cain in all of Delhi (Dilli).

    Fiction book (1998)

  • When the school canceled the field trip, the students raised Cain in protest.

  • The union'll raise Cain with you.

    M*A*S*H (1970)

  • Making decisions you know won't be popular and that will result in folks raising Cain.

    Blog text (15)

  • BROPHY: He used to do that at night... ...and the neighbors raised Cain.

    Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

  • Certainly they raise Cain at the idea of any rollback of agricultural subsidies.

    Blog text (19)

  • You've taken to politics like a Billy goat to tin cans, raising Cain all over the place.

    Wilson (1944)

  • Then I'd go over to her side, raising Cain because she hadn't hiked her prices in four years.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Instead of wry remarks about the continued crookedness in the Obama administration, people should be arming themselves and raising Cain.

    Blog text (16)

  • The workers threatened to raise Cain if their demands were not met.

Synonyms

to raise hell
vsto raise Cain
  • NSFW
15 7.9

Behave loudly and angrily to cause trouble

causes a loud disturbance or public uproar rather than private trouble
to raise the roof
vsto raise Cain
  • Informal
1 8.0

Get very angry and shout loudly

causes a loud disturbance or protest rather than just anger

Antonyms

to calm
962 1.0

Make a person or animal less upset

to silence
169 3.5

To stop someone from speaking or making noise

How Loud

to raise Cain
  • Informal
1 8.6
to make a scene
  • Informal
45 4.9
to complain
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

raise Cain infinitive
raising Cain present participle
raises Cain third person singular
raised Cain past
raised Cain past participle

Morphology

raise + Cain

Although 'raise' can mean 'cause' or 'bring up', the constituent 'Cain' is a proper name whose connection to 'uproar' is cultural/historical rather than semantic; a B1 learner who knows the words literally is unlikely to link them to 'cause a disturbance' without biblical background. The phrase is idiomatic and historically rooted, not compositionally predictable or cross-linguistically transparent, so its meaning would generally be opaque to learners.

Etymology

The idiom raise Cain may come from the Bible figure Cain, who caused violent trouble after he killed his brother Abel. That's why to raise Cain means 'to cause a loud disturbance' or 'make a big scene'.