1. Home
2. Idioms
3. raiser

raiser

---

---

curtain raiser

1. A short play or skit that precedes the main performance. I have always wanted to be a stage actor, but I've only been cast in a few tiny curtain raisers so far, playing to mostly empty theaters.

2. By extension, any event or performance that precedes the main attraction. Some local singer performed a few songs as a curtain raiser, but no one really paid him much attention until he finally announced the band was about to come on stage. The curtain-raiser match between the two university teams proved far more exciting than the professional football match that everyone had paid to see.

See also: curtain, raiser

curtain raiser

Preliminary event, as in This limited attack on the chairman is just a curtain raiser for the concerted effort to oust him . This term literally refers to a short play or skit presented before the main theatrical production. It began to be transferred to other preliminaries about 1940.

See also: curtain, raiser

heller

and hell raiser

n. a rowdy person; a hell-raising person. (Use caution with hell.) Jimmy is turning out to be a real hell raiser. A bunch of hell raisers kept me up late last night.

hell raiser

verb

See heller

See also: hell, raiser