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carry away

B1 neutral separable transitive
In simple words

To pick something up and take it away, or to make someone so excited or emotional they stop thinking clearly.

Literal meaning: To physically carry something away from its place.

Meanings

1 A2 neutral

To physically remove someone or something by carrying.

"The rescue team carried away the injured hiker on a stretcher."

Grammar: separable
2 B1 idiomatic informal

To cause someone to become so excited, emotional, or enthusiastic that they lose their usual self-control or judgment.

"Don't get carried away — we still have a lot of work to do before we celebrate."

"I got a little carried away."

— Commonly attributed as a self-deprecating phrase; widely documented in interviews and public speech as a set expression
Grammar: separable
3 B1 neutral

For a force (water, wind) to move something by transporting it away with power.

"The river burst its banks and carried away several small boats."

Grammar: separable
Usage notes

The figurative sense is most commonly found in the passive construction 'be/get carried away'. The literal sense (physically transporting) is transparent. The emotional sense implies a loss of appropriate restraint.

Commonly used with

emotion enthusiasm excitement crowd flood imagination

Forms

Base
carry away
I/you/we/they
3rd person
carries away
he/she/it
Past simple
carried away
yesterday
Past participle
carried away
have + pp
-ing form
carrying away
continuous

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