carrying-on
Americannoun
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carryings-on
plural
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irresponsible, irritating, self-indulgent, or overwrought behavior.
The baby-sitter was exhausted from the child's noisy carrying-on.
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improper or immoral behavior.
noun
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unconventional or questionable behaviour
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excited or flirtatious behaviour, esp when regarded as foolish
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of carrying-on
First recorded in 1855–60
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.
See Examples For:
It was less of an axiom than an ethos for a carrying-on, proud people:
From Washington Post ● Feb. 23, 2014
Ms. Murphy juxtaposes the comedy, the heartache and the carrying-on with a deft hand, so that sentimentality is kept at bay.
From New York Times ● Jan. 8, 2010
“That’s what she’s struggling with. The carrying-on part. Is she there?”
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
Well, there couldn’t have been any carrying-on down at the store or we’d have heard about it long time ago.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Our carrying-on was a scandal; but the women fetched the drink while all the village that could crowd in jammed the room to witness our antics.
From The Jacket (Star-Rover) by Jack London
Most of the lame comedic scenes in the opera involve Strauss’s attempts to depict the baron’s absurd carryings-on.
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2019
What with Hewlett's carryings-on and the crowds of people tramping in and out to look at her living-room ceiling.
From Time Magazine Archive
The occasion for these campy carryings-on was a festival of 19th century music presented by Kansas City's venturesome, three-year-old Performing Arts Foundation.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yet, while entertained by the absurd carryings-on of the Devil in Moscow, the reader is also made aware that grave matters of eternal importance are being decided behind the showy fireworks.
From Time Magazine Archive
Once she was complaining about the carryings-on at the jook and Tea Cake snapped, “Aw, don’t make God look so foolish—findin’ fault wid everything He made.”
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
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.
