carry off

present singular third person carries off · participle present carrying off · participle past carried off · past carried off

1. transitiveTo transport away.

   I need a truck to carry off all this furniture.

2. transitiveTo steal or kidnap

   Bandits carried off most of the money.

   1 more example

   In spite of the importance of this route it remained until a few years ago very insecure. Overhung almost its entire length by the inaccessible fastnesses of Lololand, the passing caravans dared journey only with convoy, and even then were frequently overwhelmed by raiders from the hills, who carried off both trader and goods into the mountains, the former to lifelong servitude.

   1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China

3. idiomatictransitiveTo act convincingly; to succeed at giving the impression of (e.g.) knowledge, confidence, or familiarity.

   The actress carried off a difficult performance with dash.

   2 more examples

   He is carrying off his act, convincing them he was a nuclear scientist.

   Given my general shape I'd look pretty ridiculous in the sort of outfit which, to carry it off, needs rather more height and less bulk than I have.

   2022, Chris Patten, The Hong Kong Diaries, Penguin UK, →ISBN

4. transitiveTo achieve (something); to succeed at (something).

   Despite a slow start in the race, he carried it off in the end.

   1 more example

   We didn't think they'd finish by the deadline, but they carried it off.

   Synonyms: pull off

5. transitiveTo cause the death of.

   Malaria carried off many people.

   2 more examples

   I was now entering on my fifteenth year, when the worſt of ills befell me in the loſs of my tender fond parents, who were both carried off by the smallpox, within a few days of each other; […].

   Fanny Hill

   1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC

   The bitterest loss was of her eldest daughter, carried off by malaria at 40 with a baby still inside her.

   2016 March 31, Celia W. Dugger, “Preventable Disease Blinds Poor in Third World”, in The New York Times

6. transitiveTo win (a prize, etc.).

   After a closely-fought match, Oxford carried off the trophy.