raise Cain
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to cause trouble or chaos
Literally: to raise the biblical figure Cain
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Bryan Cheyette raises Cain with Howard Jacobson
You'd be quite comfortable, I assure you,’ the man went on, and by his pleading tone Breeze guessed that his employer was used to having his own way — and raised Cain when he didn't get it.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “raise Cain” mean?
to cause trouble or chaos Literally: to raise the biblical figure Cain
Is “raise Cain” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.