Word.ws English Dictionary

raise the spectre

raise the spectre verb: to cause concern that something unfortunate might happen.

Verb

raise the spectre (third-person singular simple present raises the spectre, present participle raising the spectre, simple past and past participle raised the spectre)

  1. (idiomatic) To cause concern that something unfortunate might happen.
    • The company's third loss warning in two years raises the spectre of eventual collapse and bankruptcy.

Forms of raise the spectre

third-person singular presentraises the spectre
present participleraising the spectre
past participleraised the spectre
pastraised the spectre
alternative formraise the specter

Questions about raise the spectre

What does raise the spectre mean?
Raise the spectre means to cause concern that something unfortunate might happen.
What part of speech is raise the spectre?
Raise the spectre is a verb.
What is the past tense of raise the spectre?
The past tense of raise the spectre is raised the spectre.

Words near raise the spectre in the dictionary

  1. raise the devil
  2. raise the flag and see who salutes
  3. raise the line
  4. raise the roof
  5. raise the specter
  6. raise the spectre
  7. raise the stakes
  8. raise the white flag
  9. raise the wind
  10. raise to the ermine
  11. raise to the purple

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: raise the spectre (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-raise the spectre.ogg.

Cite this entry: “raise the spectre.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/raise_the_spectre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.