(carries, ~ing, carried)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
If you ~ something, you take it with you, holding it so that it does not touch the ground.
He was ~ing a briefcase...
He carried the plate through to the dining room...
If your job involves a lot of paperwork, you’re going to need something to ~ it all in.
VERB: V n, V n prep/adv, V n prep/adv
2.
If you ~ something, you have it with you wherever you go.
You have to ~ a bleeper so that they can call you in at any time.
VERB: V n
3.
If something carries a person or thing somewhere, it takes them there.
Flowers are designed to attract insects which then ~ the pollen from plant to plant...
The ship could ~ seventy passengers.
= transport
VERB: V n adv/prep, V n
4.
If a person or animal is ~ing a disease, they are infected with it and can pass it on to other people or animals.
Frogs eat pests which destroy crops and ~ diseases.
VERB: V n
5.
If an action or situation has a particular quality or consequence, you can say that it carries it.
Check that any medication you’re taking carries no risk for your developing baby...
VERB: no passive, no cont, V n
6.
If a quality or advantage carries someone into a particular position or through a difficult situation, it helps them to achieve that position or deal with that situation.
He had the ruthless streak necessary to ~ him into the Cabinet...
VERB: V n prep/adv
7.
If you ~ an idea or a method to a particular extent, you use or develop it to that extent.
It’s not such a new idea, but I carried it to extremes...
We could ~ that one step further by taking the same genes and putting them into another crop.
= take
VERB: V n prep/adv, V n prep/adv
8.
If a newspaper or poster carries a picture or a piece of writing, it contains it or displays it.
Several papers ~ the photograph of Mr Anderson.
VERB: V n
9.
In a debate, if a proposal or motion is carried, a majority of people vote in favour of it.
A motion backing its economic policy was carried by 322 votes to 296.
VERB: usu passive, be V-ed
10.
If a crime carries a particular punishment, a person who is found guilty of that crime will receive that punishment.
It was a crime of espionage and carried the death penalty.
VERB: no cont, V n
11.
If a sound carries, it can be heard a long way away.
Even in this stillness Leaphorn doubted if the sound would ~ far.
VERB: V adv, also V
12.
If a candidate or party carries a state or area, they win the election in that state or area. (AM; in BRIT, usually use take )
George W. Bush carried the state with 56 percent of the vote.
VERB: no passive, V n
13.
If you ~ yourself in a particular way, you walk and move in that way.
They carried themselves with great pride and dignity.
VERB: V pron-refl prep/adv
14.
If a woman is ~ing a child, she is pregnant. (OLD-FASHIONED)
VERB: usu cont
15.
If you get carried away or are carried away, you are so eager or excited about something that you do something hasty or foolish.
I got completely carried away and almost cried.
PHRASE: V inflects
16.
to ~ the can: see can
to ~ conviction: see conviction
to ~ the day: see day
to ~ weight: see weight