riser

[ rahy-zer ]

/ ˈraɪ zər /

noun

a person who rises, especially from bed: to be an early riser.

the vertical face of a stair step.

any of a group of long boards or narrow platforms that can be combined in stepwise fashion: The choir stood on a horseshoe of risers behind the orchestra.

a vertical pipe, duct, or conduit.

Metallurgy. a chamber or enlarged opening at the top of a mold for allowing air to escape or adding extra metal.

Nautical.

a heavy strake of planking in the vicinity of the garboard strake in a wooden vessel.
rising(def 10).

Nearby words

Origin of riser

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at rise, -er¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for riser

I'm an early riser, so I often work the morning shift and seldom get woken up by the blast.
When a Bomb Goes Off in Afghanistan|Heidi Vogt|May 12, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Top kill, robots, container domes, riser insertion tubes, and now back to more robots.
Wanted: A National Disaster SWAT Team|John Kao|June 2, 2010|DAILY BEAST
In the escalator each tread is attached rigidly to its riser, and the two together form an independent unit.
The Romance of Modern Mechanism|Archibald Williams
"And now here comes what we've earned—" Rip cut in as the hum of the riser came to their ears.
Plague Ship|Andre Norton

After removing the mould, drill through the metal left in the riser and gates and knock these sections off.
Oxy-Acetylene Welding and Cutting|Harold P. Manly
Perhaps they had by now secured a riser which would bring them up.
Plague Ship|Andre Norton
He didn't have long to wait, for Tommy is quite as early a riser as Happy Jack.
Happy Jack|Thornton Burgess

British Dictionary definitions for riser

riser

/ (ˈraɪzə) /

noun

a person who rises, esp from bedan early riser

the vertical part of a stair or step

a vertical pipe, esp one within a building

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for riser

riser

late 14c., "rebel," agent noun from rise (v.). Meaning "one who rises" (from bed, in a certain manner) is mid-15c. Meaning "upright part of a step" is from 1771.