raiser

Related to raiser: gloat, Held Back, Razer

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

heller

Someone who is apt to act wildly and cause or get into trouble. Yeah, I was a heller in college, but those days are long over—I have a job and a family now. You two are going to be grounded for life if you keep acting like total hellers.

hellraiser

Someone who is apt to act wildly and cause or get into trouble. Yeah, I was a hellraiser in college, but those days are long over—I have a job and a family now. You two are going to be grounded for life if you keep acting like total hellraisers.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

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
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

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
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • curtain raiser
  • the curtain falls
  • the curtain falls on (something)
  • draw the curtain
  • bring down the curtain
  • bring down the curtain (on something)
  • bring down the curtain on
  • bring the curtain down on something
  • bring/ring down the curtain
  • Guess what!
References in periodicals archive
Raiser worked at the Chief Economist Office of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Those who witnessed this period in the history of the WCC and the ecumenical movement will respect Konrad Raiser for not hesitating to address these challenges directly.
Be sure to check with the local affiliate or with NAA prior to holding a fund raiser to ensure compliancy.
A follow-up submission (reprinted on page 293) highlighted TEI's concerns about the CEO declaration requirement and several revenue raisers in the Highway Bill.
The company's new data integration process between the offline data repository and the online data collection provides an efficient, cost-effective and tightly integrated solution for capturing real-time constituent information and importing that data into an existing constituent database such as Raiser's Edge(R).
Raiser said in an interview shortly before his retirement.
The National Children's Homes charity in Scotland also use a private fund raiser for street collections but refused to name them or say how much they were paid.
The figure is "pretty much in line with what we've been spending over the past year," said Gina Raiser, advertising manager for IKEA North America.
Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, warned in a pastoral letter that the United States, much like the New Testament church in Ephesus, had "abandoned the love you had at first."
The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Konrad Raiser, has strongly criticized Nigerian authorities for failing to act decisively enough in dealing with interreligious conflicts.
It was determined that the quality of the foundry's carbon raiser was having a chemical reaction with the lining, causing it to deteriorate prematurely.
Konrad Raiser has an intimate knowledge of the working of the World Council of Churches (WCC) over the past twenty-five years that few can match, and as the recently appointed general secretary, he will certainly have a big part in shaping its future course.
That one rebuff notwithstanding, the strategy succeeded: the fund raiser raised $225,000.
SDWR's service dog raiser program are volunteer families who agree to welcome a future service dog into their home.
'We have septic tanks and we put hog waste in sacks for our gardens,' another raiser said.