Etimology
From Middle English carrien, from Anglo-Norman carier (modern French charrier); from a derivative of Latin carrus (“four-wheeled baggage wagon”), ultimately of Gaulish origin.
verb
carry (third-person singular simple present carries, present participle carrying, simple past and past participle carried)
(transitive) To lift (something) and take it to another place; to transport (something) by lifting.
(transitive) To notionally transfer from one place (such as a country, book, or column) to another.
(transitive) To convey by extension or continuance; to extend.
(transitive, chiefly archaic) To move; to convey using force
(transitive) To lead or guide.
(transitive) To stock or supply (something); to have in store.
(transitive) To adopt (something); take (something) over.
(transitive) To adopt or resolve on, especially in a deliberative assembly
(transitive, arithmetic) In an addition, to transfer the quantity in excess of what is countable in the units in a column to the column immediately to the left in order to be added there.
(transitive) To have, hold, possess or maintain (something).
(intransitive) To be transmitted; to travel.
(slang, transitive) To insult, to diss.
(transitive, nautical) To capture a ship by coming alongside and boarding.
(transitive, sports) To transport (the ball) whilst maintaining possession.
(transitive) To have on one's person.
To be pregnant (with).
To have propulsive power; to propel.
To hold the head; said of a horse.
(hunting) To have earth or frost stick to the feet when running, as a hare.
To bear or uphold successfully through conflict, for example a leader or principle
to succeed in (e.g. a contest); to succeed in; to win.
(obsolete) To get possession of by force; to capture.
To contain; to comprise; have a particular aspect; to show or exhibit
(reflexive) To bear (oneself); to behave or conduct.
To bear the charges or burden of holding or having, as stocks, merchandise, etc., from one time to another.
(intransitive) To have a weapon on one's person; to be armed.
(gaming) To be disproportionately responsible for a team's success.
(Southern US) to physically transport (in the general sense, not necessarily by lifting)
(Canada, US) To bear a firearm, such as a gun.
Examples
"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."
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.
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.
to carry the war from Greece into Asia
to carry an account to the ledger
The builders are going to carry the chimney through the roof. They would have carried the road ten miles further, but ran out of materials.
Synonyms: impel, conduct
Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet.
And he carried away all his cattle […] for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
Passion and revenge will carry them too far.
The corner drugstore doesn't carry his favorite brand of aspirin.
I think I can carry Smith's work while she is out.
The court carries that motion.
Five and nine are fourteen; carry the one to the tens place.
Always carry sufficient insurance to protect against a loss.
The sound of the bells carried for miles on the wind.
It might seem easy to hit the head of a barrel at that distance, but either the lads were not expert enough or else the snowballs, being of irregular shapes and rather light, did not carry well. Whatever the cause, the fact remained that the barrel received only a few scattering shots and these on the outer edges of the head.
Nani collected the ball on the halfway line, drifted past Bryan Ruiz, and carried the ball unchallenged 50 yards down the left before picking out Welbeck for a crisp finish from seven yards.
she always carries a purse; marsupials carry their young in a pouch
Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say.
Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. […] One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished. Modern society may not have done anything about war. But peace is a lot more peaceful.
The doctor said she's carrying twins.
A gun or mortar carries well.
to carry well, i.e. to hold the head high, with arching neck
The frost […] caused the fallows and seeds to ‘carry’ a good deal, and they could only hunt very slowly.
the carrying of our main point
The Tories carried the election.
The greater part carries it.
The Town [of Bulloign] was both well fortified, and well manned; yet it was distressed, and ready for an Assault: which if it had been given would have cost much blood; but yet the Town would have been carried in the end.
But the gallant D’Oyley, landing at the head of his well disciplined band, immediately attacked the Spaniards in their intrenchments, carried the principal fortress by a vigorous assault, destroyed one half of Arnaldo’s forces, and compelled him to return to Cuba with the remainder […]
Things of little value carry great importance.
It carries too great an imputation of ignorance.
He carried himself so insolently in the house, and out of the house, to all persons, that he became odious.
A merchant is carrying a large stock; a farm carries a mortgage; a broker carries stock for a customer; to carry a life insurance.
Nobody looked like they were carrying, other than those who had knives strapped to their belts, although with Alaska's new concealed-carry permit, available to anyone who trundled themselves down to the local police station to take the class, someone in this crowd could have a rocket launcher stuffed into their boot and she'd never know it.
He absolutely carried the game, to the point of killing the entire enemy team by himself.
Will you carry me to town?
A holster can help you carry in confidence, knowing that your weapon is secure and close at hand.
Related words
synonyms
(lift and bring to somewhere else): bear, move, transport, tote
(stock, supply): have, keep, stock, supply
(adopt): adopt, take on, take over
(have, maintain): have, maintain
(be transmitted, travel): be transmitted, travel
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "in arithmetic"): borrow (the equivalent reverse procedure in the inverse operation of subtraction)
noun
carry (plural carries)
A manner of transporting or lifting something; the grip or position in which something is carried.
A tract of land over which boats or goods are carried between two bodies of navigable water; a portage.
(computing) The bit or digit that is carried in an addition operation.
(finance) The benefit or cost of owning an asset over time.
(golf) The distance travelled by the ball when struck, until it hits the ground.
(finance) Carried interest.
(UK, dialect) The sky; cloud-drift.
Examples
Adjust your carry from time to time so that you don't tire too quickly.
Undrowned, unducked, as safe from the perils of the broad lake as we had come out of the defiles of the rapids, we landed at the carry below the dam at the lake's outlet.
On paper, simply add the carry to the next addition; that is, $B2 + $9C + 1. That's fine for paper, but how is it done by computer?
The carry on this trade is 25 basis points per annum.