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
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
“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
"Yes—they're the carrying-on sort, Aunt Dorrie"; Joan looked wise and confident.
From The Shield of Silence by George Loughridge
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
In the Pallottine order, carryings-on over cash WHY A SWEEPSTAKES? screamed the copy in the direct-mail ad.
From Time Magazine Archive
Friends report no apparent danger that either is about to indulge in celebrity carryings-on.
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
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.
