riser

[rahy-zer]

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

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. 2018

Examples from the Web for riser

Contemporary Examples of 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
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

Historical Examples of riser

Protruding metal is that which flowed up into gate and riser.
The Boy's Book of New Inventions
Harry E. Maule
Dane reached the shaft of the riser—to find the platform gone.
Plague Ship
Andre Norton
Perhaps they had by now secured a riser which would bring them up.
Plague Ship
Andre Norton
At the roof the 40-inch riser is run into a 48-inch stand pipe.
The New York Subway
Anonymous
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

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

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.