carrying

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of carry.

   The old bridge is carrying far more traffic than it was built to handle.

   Carrying the injured hiker down the trail took the whole team.

   Note

   The -ing form does two jobs. After be it builds the progressive (the bridge is carrying more traffic). In a noun slot it becomes a gerund that still takes a direct object (carrying the hiker took the whole team). It brings along every sense of carry, including the shopkeeper's: a store carrying winter coats stocks them. When an of-phrase follows instead of an object, you have crossed into the noun of transport.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The transporting of goods or people from one place to another.

   The carrying of heavy freight became far cheaper once the railway opened.

   Coastal towns once depended on small boats for the carrying of supplies.

   Similartransport, transportation, conveyance, haulage, carriage

   Note

   Unlike the gerund, this noun can be counted. In the plural, carryings means the loads or traffic carried. Railway reporting used it this way: Trains Illustrated in 1959 lamented falling receipts from merchandise and livestock carryings. It also combines with particles, as in carryings away of goods, where the plural ending goes on carryings, not on away. Follow it with of rather than a direct object.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2