What does carried mean?
"Carried" is the past tense and past participle of the verb "carry," one of English's most versatile verbs of movement and support. At its simplest, it describes holding or supporting someone or something while moving it from one place to another: a porter carried luggage, a mother carried her child. Beyond the literal sense, "carried" anchors many established expressions — plans are "carried out" when executed, teams are "carried off" when they win unexpectedly, people get "carried away" when emotion overtakes them, and conversations "carried on" continue despite interruption. The word also extends naturally to abstract uses: a signal can be carried by wire, a disease carried by insects, and a motion carried by a vote. Neutral in tone and universal across British and American English, "carried" ultimately descends from Latin "carrus" (a wheeled vehicle), making it a linguistic relative of "carriage," "cargo," and even "career." Its flexibility and frequency make it essential vocabulary for describing both physical effort and figurative transfer.
verbPast tense and past participle of "carry": to have held, supported, or transported something or someone while moving from one place to another.
- Held and moved a person or thing from one place to another while supported.
- Conducted or performed an activity or task to completion (as in carried out).
- Became overly emotional or swept up (as in carried away).
"She carried the boxes up three flights of stairs without stopping."
"The porter carried our luggage to the platform."
"The committee carried out its review over several weeks."
"Carried" hides an ancient wheel inside it — it traces back to the Latin "carrus," a two-wheeled Celtic-style war chariot that rolled into English as words like car, cart, and career.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of carried
"Carried" derives from the verb "carry," which entered Middle English in the late medieval period, likely influenced by Anglo-Norman "cariier," itself rooted in the Latin "carricare" (to load onto a cart), from "carrus" — a two-wheeled Gallic war chariot adopted into Roman usage. This same root gave rise to cognates including "carriage," "carrier," "cargo," and "charge." The word has retained its core sense of bearing or transporting since its earliest recorded use in English.
Related word forms
How carried is actually used
Primarily neutral in register and used across all contexts, from everyday speech to formal writing. It appears most often as the past tense of literal physical transport, but idiomatic uses like "carried away" (overexcited) and "carried out" (performed) are equally common in both British and American English.
Easily confused with carried
"Curried" refers to food flavored with curry or the act of currying favor, whereas "carried" means having borne or conveyed something.