DCHP-1 Online

raising

• 1 † n. the setting up of the frame of a house, barn, etc.

  • a1820  (1838)  When the trees are all notched, nothing remains but to lay them in their places one upon the other, or "raising" as it is called.
  • 1906  I have never done anything but carry pins and braces at a raising all my life.
  • 1961  Reed was a skilled carpenter, and famous as a "barn-raiser." . . . When all was ready, the day of the "raising" was advertised far and near. . . .

• 2 n. a community-work project and social affair at which neighbors pooled efforts to raise the frame of a house, barn, etc.

  See also: raising bee  

  • 1826  Assisting at a Raising in Waterford Village . . . he fell down in an Appoplectic fit . . . and immediately expired.
  • 1836  Men who stated as their only reason for not joining, was that they could get no men to come to a raising without spirits, have been told to try, and if none will come the members of the Temperance Society will do the work.
  • 1946  "The frame's all hewed now, and there's three loads of boards. Pa's goin' to--to call a raisin' after the grain's in."