raise hell
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Complain vociferously.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Trevor Howard too spurned his image of hellraiser.
I'd go to the cottage and raise hell.’
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. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “raise hell” mean?
Complain vociferously.
Is “raise hell” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.