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Harry was sitting up on a bed in the hospital wing at school, surrounded by his visitors. Fudge, one of them, started to insult Harry. Did Mrs. Weasley want to prevent him from getting angry or from standing up and leaving his bed? (Psychologycally or physically?)

”Insane,” whispered Fudge, still backing away. “Mad …”

And then there was silence. Madam Pomfrey was standing frozen at the foot of Harry’s bed, her hands over her mouth. Mrs. Weasley was still standing over Harry, her hand on his shoulder to prevent him from rising. Bill, Ron, and Hermione were staring at Fudge. (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire [US Version]: p.709)

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  • Is the book really called Harry Potter 4 in the US?!
    – Hugo
    Commented Nov 1, 2011 at 6:51
  • No, it's called "The Goblet of Fire," I think the same name as the British version.
    – Mark
    Commented Nov 1, 2011 at 8:43

1 Answer 1

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It means to prevent him from getting up from the bed.

Rising is the word for getting up from bed, similar to the rising sun.

The first two definitions from TheFreeDictionary.com are:

  1. To assume a standing position after lying, sitting, or kneeling.
  2. To get out of bed: rose at dawn.

You might say to a person you're waking up:

Rise and shine!

Here's the word in a saying:

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

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    I prefer the variant "Early to rise and early to bed makes a man healthy, wealthy and dead."
    – Henry
    Commented Nov 1, 2011 at 7:53
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    Note that a tangential usage of 'rise' could be interpreted as getting angry: "rising to the bait", but I've never heard that expression elided to just "rising".
    – Benjol
    Commented Nov 1, 2011 at 10:58
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    @Benjol: rise can be used to mean annoyed reaction as in "Lucy was doing everything she could to get a rise out of Charlie Brown." Commented Nov 1, 2011 at 11:30
  • @MattЭллен, good point, though I believe that's more US English (though it would be understood in UK)
    – Benjol
    Commented Nov 1, 2011 at 12:29

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