The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Raise \Raise\ (r[=a]z), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Raised (r[=a]zd);
   p. pr. & vb. n. Raising.] [OE. reisen, Icel. reisa,
   causative of r[imac]sa to rise. See Rise, and cf. Rear to
   raise.]
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   1. To cause to rise; to bring from a lower to a higher place;
      to lift upward; to elevate; to heave; as, to raise a stone
      or weight. Hence, figuratively:
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      (a) To bring to a higher condition or situation; to
          elevate in rank, dignity, and the like; to increase
          the value or estimation of; to promote; to exalt; to
          advance; to enhance; as, to raise from a low estate;
          to raise to office; to raise the price, and the like.
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                This gentleman came to be raised to great
                titles.                           --Clarendon.
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                The plate pieces of eight were raised three
                pence in the piece.               --Sir W.
                                                  Temple.
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      (b) To increase the strength, vigor, or vehemence of; to
          excite; to intensify; to invigorate; to heighten; as,
          to raise the pulse; to raise the voice; to raise the
          spirits or the courage; to raise the heat of a
          furnace.
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      (c) To elevate in degree according to some scale; as, to
          raise the pitch of the voice; to raise the temperature
          of a room.
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   2. To cause to rise up, or assume an erect position or
      posture; to set up; to make upright; as, to raise a mast
      or flagstaff. Hence:
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      (a) To cause to spring up from a recumbent position, from
          a state of quiet, or the like; to awaken; to arouse.
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                They shall not awake, nor be raised out of their
                sleep.                            --Job xiv. 12.
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      (b) To rouse to action; to stir up; to incite to tumult,
          struggle, or war; to excite.
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                He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind.
                                                  --Ps. cvii.
                                                  25.
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                Aeneas . . . employs his pains,
                In parts remote, to raise the Tuscan swains.
                                                  --Dryden.
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      (c) To bring up from the lower world; to call up, as a
          spirit from the world of spirits; to recall from
          death; to give life to.
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                Why should it be thought a thing incredible with
                you, that God should raise the dead ? --Acts
                                                  xxvi. 8.
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   3. To cause to arise, grow up, or come into being or to
      appear; to give rise to; to originate, produce, cause,
      effect, or the like. Hence, specifically:
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      (a) To form by the accumulation of materials or
          constituent parts; to build up; to erect; as, to raise
          a lofty structure, a wall, a heap of stones.
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                I will raise forts against thee.  --Isa. xxix.
                                                  3.
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      (b) To bring together; to collect; to levy; to get
          together or obtain for use or service; as, to raise
          money, troops, and the like. "To raise up a rent."
          --Chaucer.
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      (c) To cause to grow; to procure to be produced, bred, or
          propagated; to grow; as, to raise corn, barley, hops,
          etc.; toraise cattle. "He raised sheep." "He raised
          wheat where none grew before." --Johnson's Dict.
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   Note: In some parts of the United States, notably in the
         Southern States, raise is also commonly applied to the
         rearing or bringing up of children.
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               I was raised, as they say in Virginia, among the
               mountains of the North.            --Paulding.
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      (d) To bring into being; to produce; to cause to arise,
          come forth, or appear; -- often with up.
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                I will raise them up a prophet from among their
                brethren, like unto thee.         --Deut. xviii.
                                                  18.
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                God vouchsafes to raise another world
                From him [Noah], and all his anger to forget.
                                                  --Milton.
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      (e) To give rise to; to set agoing; to occasion; to start;
          to originate; as, to raise a smile or a blush.
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                Thou shalt not raise a false report. --Ex.
                                                  xxiii. 1.
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      (f) To give vent or utterance to; to utter; to strike up.
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                Soon as the prince appears, they raise a cry.
                                                  --Dryden.
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      (g) To bring to notice; to submit for consideration; as,
          to raise a point of order; to raise an objection.
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   4. To cause to rise, as by the effect of leaven; to make
      light and spongy, as bread.
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            Miss Liddy can dance a jig, and raise paste.
                                                  --Spectator.
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   5. (Naut.)
      (a) To cause (the land or any other object) to seem higher
          by drawing nearer to it; as, to raise Sandy Hook
          light.
      (b) To let go; as in the command, Raise tacks and sheets,
          i. e., Let go tacks and sheets.
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   6. (Law) To create or constitute; as, to raise a use, that
      is, to create it. --Burrill.
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   To raise a blockade (Mil.), to remove or break up a
      blockade, either by withdrawing the ships or forces
      employed in enforcing it, or by driving them away or
      dispersing them.

   To raise a check, note, bill of exchange, etc., to
      increase fraudulently its nominal value by changing the
      writing, figures, or printing in which the sum payable is
      specified.

   To raise a siege, to relinquish an attempt to take a place
      by besieging it, or to cause the attempt to be
      relinquished.

   To raise steam, to produce steam of a required pressure.

   To raise the wind, to procure ready money by some temporary
      expedient. [Colloq.]

   To raise Cain, or To raise the devil, to cause a great
      disturbance; to make great trouble. [Slang]
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   Syn: To lift; exalt; elevate; erect; originate; cause;
        produce; grow; heighten; aggravate; excite.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Raising \Rais"ing\ (r[=a]z"[i^]ng), n.
   1. The act of lifting, setting up, elevating, exalting,
      producing, or restoring to life.
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   2. Specifically, the operation or work of setting up the
      frame of a building; as, to help at a raising. [U.S.]
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   3. The operation of embossing sheet metal, or of forming it
      into cup-shaped or hollow articles, by hammering,
      stamping, or spinning.
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   Raising bee, a bee for raising the frame of a building. See
      Bee, n., 2. [U.S.] --W. Irving.

   Raising hammer, a hammer with a rounded face, used in
      raising sheet metal.

   Raising plate (Carp.), the plate, or longitudinal timber,
      on which a roof is raised and rests.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

raising
    adj 1: increasing in quantity or value; "a cost-raising increase
           in the basic wage rate"
    n 1: the event of something being raised upward; "an elevation
         of the temperature in the afternoon"; "a raising of the
         land resulting from volcanic activity" [syn: elevation,
         lift, raising]
    2: the properties acquired as a consequence of the way you were
       treated as a child [syn: raising, rearing, nurture]
    3: helping someone grow up to be an accepted member of the
       community; "they debated whether nature or nurture was more
       important" [syn: breeding, bringing up, fostering,
       fosterage, nurture, raising, rearing, upbringing]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

127 Moby Thesaurus words for "raising":
   addition, adjunct, aggrandizement, ampliation, amplification,
   apotheosis, apprenticeship, architecture, ascent, assembly,
   assumption, augmentation, barmy, basic training, beatification,
   breaking, breeding, broadening, building, canonization, casting,
   composition, conditioning, construction, conversion, crafting,
   craftsmanship, creation, crescendo, cultivation, deification,
   deployment, development, devising, diastatic, discipline,
   dispersion, drill, drilling, elaboration, elevation, enlargement,
   enshrinement, enzymic, erecting, erection, escalation, exaltation,
   exercise, expansion, extension, extraction, fabrication,
   fanning out, fashioning, fermenting, fetching-up, flare, formation,
   forming, formulation, fostering, framing, green thumb, grooming,
   growing, handicraft, handiwork, harvesting, heaving up, height,
   hiking, housebreaking, improvement, in-service training, increase,
   leavening, lifting, lofting, machining, magnification, making,
   manual training, manufacture, manufacturing, military training,
   milling, mining, molding, nurture, nurturing, on-the-job training,
   practice, prefabrication, preparation, processing, producing,
   readying, rearing, refining, rehearsal, shaping, sloyd, smelting,
   splay, spread, spreading, standing on end, sursum corda, training,
   upbringing, upbuoying, upcast, upheaval, uplift, uplifting, upping,
   upraising, uprearing, upthrow, upthrust, vocational education,
   vocational training, widening, working, workmanship, yeasty