carry off
Britishverb
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to remove forcefully
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to win
he carried off all the prizes
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to manage or handle (a situation) successfully
he carried off the introductions well
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to cause to die
he was carried off by pneumonia
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Handle successfully, win, as in It was a difficult situation, but he managed to carry it off gracefully , or They carried off first prize . [First half of 1800s]
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Cause the death of someone, as in The new African virus carried off an entire village . This usage is less common today. [Late 1600s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Or, perhaps, the finished speech had been left unattended by an open window and was carried off, a page at time, by strangely aggressive birds.
From Literature
Simon Jones was carried off on a stretcher after a sickening knee injury and other plans fell at the first hurdle.
From BBC
Later Muhammad's body was carried off for burial.
From BBC
Supporters clapped and cheered the arrestees, with some being carried off by multiple officers.
From BBC
“Fevers and diseases of the malarial character carry off about half of mankind, and diseases of the respiratory organs one-fourth,” he wrote.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
