raise the roof

To raise the roof is to celebrate loudly, with so much noise and energy the roof might lift off. In the 90s it also became a dance move: palms up, pushing at the ceiling over and over.

What raise the roof means

A crowd raises the roof when it goes wild for a winning goal or a big chorus. A party raises the roof when it gets loud. The phrase can also mean complaining loudly and angrily (“The tenants raised the roof about the rent increase”), though the celebrating sense is the one most people know now.

The 90s gesture took it literally: flat palms facing up, pumping toward the ceiling in time with the music, at weddings, proms and ball games. Today it’s mostly a nostalgic or ironic move, the kind your uncle busts out at a wedding.

Examples

• “The band came back for an encore and the crowd raised the roof.”
• “When the DJ played that song, my uncle started raising the roof.”
• “The fans raised the roof after the last-second goal.”

Where it came from

It’s an old idiom. Dictionary.com dates both senses, noisy celebration and loud complaint, to the mid-1800s, built on the image of a roof that can’t hold in all that noise or anger. Wiktionary cites a 1918 New Zealand newspaper using it for a rousing sing-along.

Songs kept it alive: Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” (1983) uses it, and Public Enemy put out a track called “Raise the Roof” in 1987. By the 1990s it had its own hand-pumping dance move.

Related terms

• Booyah: a shout of triumph.
• Lit: exciting, full of energy.
• Turnt: hyped up for a party.
• Banger: a song that gets everyone moving.

More throwback words are in our 90s slang guide.