TO RAISE CAIN, phr. (American).—To proceed to extreme measures; to be quarrelsome; to make a disturbance. Of Western origin; primarily applied to men who would have shown no hesitation in shooting or stabbing; generally = merely disputatious or quarrelsome. Variants are TO RAISE HATE, HELL, or HELL AND TOMMY, and TO RAISE NED (q.v.). [An allusion to the anger of the first fratricide.]
1849. RUXTON, Scenes in the Far West, p. 117. He had been knocking around all day in every grog-shop and bar-room in town, and when evening came he was seen swaggering down Main Street, his head bare, his eyes bloodshot, and his revolver in hand, shouting: ‘Who’ll hinder this child? I am going TO RAISE CAIN! Who’s got anything to say agin it?’
1869. H. B. STOWE, Oldtown Folks, x. ‘I tell you what, Solomon Peters,’ said Miss Asphyxia, ‘I ’d jest as soon have the great red dragon in the Revelations a-comin’ down on my house as a boy! Ef I don’t work hard enough now, I ’d like to know, without havin’ a boy raound RAISIN’ gineral CAIN.’
