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I found this definition for rise in LDOCE:

3 stand: formal to stand up:
Then she picked up her bag and rose to leave.

rise from the table/your chair etc The chairman rose from his chair and came forward to greet her. He put down his glass and rose to his feet.

This suggests that "from" is the preposition of "rise." Then why "in" has been used?

Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope. "Yer ticket fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September -- King's Cross -- it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me.... See yeh soon, Harry." The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.

and one more question: Would it be wrong to use "onto" instead of "on to" in the bold sentence? What would the difference be in meaning and grammar?

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  • You misunderstand the dictionary. The verb rise does not require the preposition from. Rise can take a number of prepositions, including in, on, above, from, under, over, and through (to name just a few). It is important to realize that examples in a dictionary are not "rules" or "requirements" that govern a given word's usage.
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jun 9, 2017 at 6:58
  • @P.E.Dant: So you accept that the meaning of "rise" here is "to stand up"?
    – Diamond
    Commented Jun 9, 2017 at 10:05
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    No, the meaning here is not "to stand up". Visualize a seat in a train coach. With his feet on the floor in front of the seat, Harry raises his body, perhaps by pushing down with his arms on the armrests. This is what is conveyed by he rose in his seat. That is not "to stand up". If the author had wanted to describe that action, she would have written ...he stood up and pressed his nose against the window.
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jun 9, 2017 at 18:03

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Because he didn't stand up: he didn't rise from (out of) his seat, he raised his body a little bit while still in his seat. He "moved from a lower position to a higher one" while still in his seat.

rise

1 Move from a lower position to a higher one

(Oxford)

To be 'in' his seat means to be 'enclosed' within his seat; so one can rise in one's seat by raising or boosting oneself up by several means. One's bottomside does not have to be in contact with the seat bottom to be considered in one's seat. Etiquette might say that, but grammar doesn't

I believe the difference between onto/on to and/or into/in to has been covered previously; search for it and if you can't find an answer, ask a new question.

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