raise the devil

Idioms and Phrases

see under raise Cain .

Example Sentences

"In a short time," says the annalist, "it was commonly reported forty men of Andover could raise the devil as well as any astrologer."

From Project Gutenberg

I see we must raise the devil again with these Canadians, before we can get our liberty.”

From Project Gutenberg

What sort of friends are they who can do nothing but drink and carouse and raise the devil in wine shops, who pass their lives in idleness and make sport of steady, hard-working mechanics, and who never cease trying to make us do all sorts of foolish things, so that we may end by being as worthless as they are?

From Project Gutenberg

Your Lordship's tutor was just such a well-meaning person as mine, who used to take from me old Lindsay of Pitscottie, and set me down to get by heart Rollin's infernal list of the Shepherd Kings, whose hard names could have done no good to any one on earth, unless he had wished to raise the devil, and lacked language to conjure with.—Always, my dear Lord, most truly yours, Walter Scott.

From Project Gutenberg

I have learn'd to raise the Devil, but how the Devil shall I do to lay him.

From Project Gutenberg