Carry Meaning
/ˈkæɹi/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
verbTo lift (something) and take it to another place; to transport (something) by lifting.
verbTo notionally transfer from one place (such as a country, book, or column) to another.
Sentence Examples
Your undaunted spirit will carry you through.
You should carry out his offer.
Credit cards eliminate the need to carry a lot of cash.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The strong porter can easily ____ this heavy suitcase up the stairs.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Can you please ____ these heavy bags to the car for me right now?.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English carien, from Anglo-Norman carier (modern French charrier); from a derivative of Latin carrus (“four-wheeled baggage wagon”), ultimately of Gaulish origin. Compare also Middle English cairen (“to go, bring carry”), whence Modern English cair, with which it was confused.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
""By means of the Golden Cap I shall command the Winged Monkeys to carry you to the gates of the Emerald City," said Glinda, "for it would be a shame to deprive the people of so wonderful a ruler.""
— 1900, L. Frank Baum, chapter 23, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:
"Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed."
— 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles."
— 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2023, page 29:
"Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet."
— c. 1596-1599, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, act 5, scene 5:
"And he carried away all his cattle […] for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 31:18:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The strong porter can easily ____ this heavy suitcase up the stairs.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Can you please ____ these heavy bags to the car for me right now?.