English

Verb

carry out ‎(third-person singular simple present carries out, present participle carrying out, simple past and past participle carried out)

1. (transitive) To hold while moving it out.

   We’ll have to carry the piano out of the shop.

   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     And so the little Rabbit was put into a sack with the old picture-books and a lot of rubbish, and carried out to the end of the garden behind the fowl-house.

2. (transitive, idiomatic) To fulfill.

   She finally carried out her lifelong ambition when she appeared in a Hollywood blockbuster.

   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     The Boy was going to the seaside to-morrow. Everything was arranged, and now it only remained to carry out the doctor's orders.

   • 2011, Phil McNulty, Euro 2012: Montenegro 2-2 England

     Capello warned his players that caution was not an option as they went in search of the result that would take England to Euro 2012. And his message was carried out to the letter in the opening exchanges as England played with a tempo and threat Montenegro struggled to subdue.

3. (transitive) To execute or perform; to put into operation.

Related terms

• carryout
• carry off
• carry through

Translations

External links

• carry in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• carry out in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911