to raise hell
- idiom
- /reɪz hɛl/
- NSFW
- Earl called the photographer and raised hell.
- going to raise hell
- start raising hell
- known for raising hell
Every now and then you flare up and raise hell, but you also don't have to be constantly affected by the daily stuff.
- Every now and then you flare up and raise hell, but you also don't have to be constantly affected by the daily stuff.
- I'm a well go to the City Council and raise hell and say that your consent is at stake here.
- Meanwhile, big buyer is raising hell, getting up with me like, hey, where you where the guys?
Examples
-
He's in town raising hell.
Fiction book (1993) -
" She would storm in and raise hell with those people.
Fiction book (1999) -
All you wanna do is raise hell.
-
I'm really gonna raise hell!
-
For one thing, no one gets pissed if you say something stupid or raise hell.
Fiction book (1997) -
Just by coming home like this, you ask me to take your side when he raises hell.
Fiction book (1993) -
We started raising hell with all the likely suspects, and what do you know?
-
She came home early one day and raised hell.
-
The moment they shut you down, she went down there raising hell with the councilman.
-
After the new policy was announced, the students started to raise hell at the school meeting.
Synonyms
Complain loudly about something small
Shout very loudly to show pain, anger or strong protest
Speak more loudly, often because you are angry or want to be heard
To cause fights or problems between people on purpose
Complain loudly in public to get attention
To complain loudly and make people notice the problem
Complain loudly about something small
To make a noisy public protest
Get very angry and shout loudly
To speak or write very angrily against something to show strong criticism
To say or do things to make others angry and start fights
To cause trouble between people to get attention
Antonyms
How Disruptive
- NSFW
- Informal
- Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
raise + hell
The verb 'raise' (to cause or bring about) plus 'hell' (used metaphorically for extreme trouble or chaos) yields a largely inferable meaning of 'cause a disturbance'—so the basic idea is partly derivable from the constituents. However, 'hell' here is used idiomatically as a metaphor for noisy disorder and the pragmatic force (how intense or what kind of trouble) is not fully predictable to a B1 learner without exposure, so it should be classed as semi-transparent.
Etymology
The phrase raise hell comes from the image of raise meaning to lift up and hell meaning a place of loud chaos. Imagine people lifting up a storm of noise and trouble as if calling up hell, so raise hell means 'to behave loudly and cause trouble'.