▪ I. carrying, vbl. n.
(ˈkærɪɪŋ)
1. The action of the vb. carry in various senses.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 62 Caryynge. 1521 in Bury Wills (1850) 123 Item fo{supr} carieng of tymber. 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 13 The sheathing, furring, carrying, washing, and breaming. a 1719 Addison (J.), In the carrying of our main point. 1769 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 220 The slave carrying and limitation Bills. c 1865 Circ. Sc. 435/1 In subtraction the carrying can never amount to more than 1. |
2. with advbs.
carrying-over = carry-over a.
| 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxv. §3 The carrying him forth upon a bier. 1611 Bible Matt. i. 17 Vntill the carrying away into Babylon. 1642 Howell For. Trav. (Arb.) 43 There are many things..worth the carying away. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 73 ¶5 The carrying on of Traffick, the Administration of Justice. 1729 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 87 The carrying on the building. 1907 Poley & Gould Stock Exch. 168 The General Contango Day (these days are also known as Continuation or Carrying-over Days). Ibid. 175 Where the broker is himself the taker-in rendering a carrying-over note, he is not entitled to charge both commission and contango. 1910 H. Withers Stocks & Shares 277 If no charge is made for carrying over, a full commission is usually paid when the bargain is finally closed. |
3. An act of carrying; that which is carried.
carryings-on (
pl.): questionable or
outré proceedings, flirtations, frolics; also
sing.;
cf. carry v. 52 e.
| 1663 Butler Hud. i. ii. 556 Is this the end To which these Carryings-on did tend? 1821 Byron Two Foscari ii. i. 305 Your midnight carryings off and drownings. 18.. Peter Cram in Knickerbocker Mag. (Bartlett) Wherever there were singin' schools, there would be carryings-on. c 1865 Circ. Sc. I. 510/2 The carryings from the rejected decimals are to be taken account of. 1866 Brierley Fratchingtons i. 5 Theau'd weary th' patience ov a jackass wi' thi carryins on. 1890 J. Service Notandums xi. 80 What carryin's on have I no seen there! 1909 Masefield Trag. Nan i. 13 You'll let 'er marry 'im, after 'is carrying on along o' Jenny? |
4. attrib., as in
carrying corporation,
carrying horse,
carrying power,
carrying vessel;
carrying-capacity, the number of people or animals (
esp. sheep or cattle) that a given area of land will support; also
transf.;
carrying-chair, a chair in which a person is carried;
carrying-place, a place where goods, etc. have to be carried overland in inland navigation (
cf. carriage,
carry n.);
carrying trade, the trade or business of carrying goods,
esp. over sea between different countries.
| 1883 ‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi 570 Demands made upon their [boats'] *carrying capacity. 1930 L. G. D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs vii. 151 Hoare.., by ploughing, had raised the carrying capacity [of the station] to over 30,000 sheep in 1890. 1958 Geogr. Rev. XLVIII. 5 By relating actual to potential use the capability of the land to support population—that is, its ‘carrying capacity’—can be measured. |
| 1880 Queen 13 Mar. (Advt.), Invalid furniture..*carrying chairs, {pstlg}2. 16s. 6d. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 129/2 The Chinese mandarin..when seated proudly in his fancy carrying-chair. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 25 Feb. 16/3 The carrying-chair used by Leo XIII. |
| 1887 Manch. Guard. 2 Apr. 7 Business of a carrying corporation. |
| 1689 in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1861) 4th Ser. V. 221 Then we marched down to..several of the *carrying-places. 1786 W. Grayson in Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) IV. 133 The navigable waters and the carrying-places between them are made common highways. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. V. liii. 124 The shortest carrying-place from the Kennebec to the Dead River. |
| 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 133 If a river has a steep bed it generally possesses great *carrying power. |
| 1776 Adam Smith W.N. I. ii. v. 377 The coal trade..employs more shipping than all the *carrying trade of England. 1878 F. Williams Midl. Railw. 157 A monopoly of the carrying trade of the district. |
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 62 *Caryynge vesselle, or instrument of caryynge. |
¶ Examples of the passage of the
vbl. n. into a gerund, and its subsequent apparent use as a passive
pple., through omission of preceding preposition
a, as in ‘the ark was a building’.
| 1684 J. Peter's Siege of Vienna 4 The Fortifications..which were vigorously carrying on by Count Staremberg. 1736 Butler Anal. ii. iv. 186 A mysterious Oeconomy, which has been carrying on from the Time the World came into, etc. 1742 Jarvis Quix. i. iii. viii. (heading) Several unfortunate persons, who were carrying, much against their wills, to a place they did not like. 1777 Sheridan Trip Scarb. ii. i, I met a wounded peer carrying off. 1816 Jane Austen Emma ii. xviii. 266 Tea was carrying round. 1849 Grote Greece (1862) V. lxi. 338 The operations now carrying on in Chios. |
▪ II. ˈcarrying, ppl. a. 1. a. That carries: see
carry v.
| 1627 Feltham Resolves i. liii, The carrying stream is greater, than the bringing one. 1887 Scotsman 19 Mar., Fourteen high-class weight-carrying hunters. |
b. Of sound: far-reaching, penetrating.
Cf. carry v. 9 c.
| 1893 Yonge & Coleridge Strolling Players ii. 9 A small, slight girl..sending her clear, sweet ‘carrying’ voice before her. 1932 Punch 6 Jan. 14/1 My offices are just above and you have a carrying voice. I am not known as Towser to the staff. 1940 Wodehouse Eggs, Beans & Crumpets 156 Beamish's voice is of a robust and carrying timbre. |
2. Special combinations:
carrying comb Spinning (see
quots.);
carrying party Mil., a party detailed to carry or bring up supplies.
| 1866 Brit. Pat. 1123 5 In Figure 6 an arrangement is shown for obtaining motion to the parts from a column in the centre of the main circle of *carrying combs. 1884 W. S. B. M{supc}Laren Spinning (ed. 2) 94 The carrying-comb carries off the wool from between its two plates. 1889 Burnley Wool & Woolcombing 269 The carrying comb advances in as near as possible a perpendicular position close to the nipper mouth and takes off the tuft of fibres. |
| 1884 Instr. Mil. Engin. (H.M.S.O.) (ed. 3) I. ii. 109 A certain number..will be told off as *carrying party. They will be provided with bags of hay, shavings, wool, &c., boards, fascines. 1928 Blunden Undertones of War ix. 95 A carrying-party from another battalion was to meet me in Hamel. |