carry off

verb

carried off; carrying off; carries off

transitive verb

1

: to cause the death of

the plague carried off thousands

2

: to perform or manage successfully : bring off

tried to look suave but couldn't carry it off

Synonyms

• accomplish
• achieve
• bring off
• carry out
• commit
• compass
• do
• execute
• follow through (with)
• fulfill
• fulfil
• make
• negotiate
• perform
• perpetrate
• prosecute
• pull off
• put through

Examples of carry off in a Sentence

the con artist would never have been able to carry off his schemes if it were not for the greed of his eager victims

pray that the pestilence does not carry off any more souls than it already has

Recent Examples on the Web

Exactly six weeks ago, Maxwell Lewis was carried off the court with an ugly-looking leg injury. —Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News, 13 Feb. 2025

Some of those released appeared frail, including an elderly man on an oxygen tank who had to be carried off one of the buses that arrived in Ramallah. —Jon Haworth, ABC News, 8 Feb. 2025

In addition to wrecking the forge, Confederate soldiers carried off its Black inhabitants for enslavement in Virginia and beyond. —Robert Colby, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Feb. 2025

She was carried off the court and didn’t return to the game. —Taylor Lyons, Baltimore Sun, 20 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1640, in the meaning defined at sense 2