CARRY - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

CARRYAuthored

The Law Mind • 1168 words

Definition

CARRY has two distinct legal meanings that operate in entirely separate areas of law and must not be conflated.

1. In criminal law — weapons: To bear, have on one's person, or keep within reach a weapon. The term anchors firearms and weapons statutes, particularly concealed carry regulations, and focuses on physical possession of a weapon in a way that makes it accessible for use.

2. In criminal law — larceny (asportation): To move stolen property from its original location. As used in larceny doctrine, "carry" alone is legally insufficient — the operative phrase is "carry away," denoting the completed act of asportation that consummates the taking. The slightest movement of property away from its original position satisfies this element, but "carry" without "away" does not complete the legal formula.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To lift something and take it to another place; to transport by lifting; to stock or supply something; to have in store.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To convey or transport in any manner from one place to another; to bear; to have or hold as a burden while moving from place to place.

The ordinary meaning of "carry" implies movement — picking something up and transporting it. Both legal meanings are narrower and more technical than this. In larceny doctrine, "carry" alone is legally inert without "away"; the common reader would not intuit that this single word's absence could determine guilt or innocence. In weapons law, "carry" may include situations where an item is never moved at all — storing a firearm in a vehicle, for instance — diverging sharply from the everyday sense of active transport.

Common Confusion

Carry / carry away: These are not interchangeable in larceny analysis. "Carry away" — the English rendering of the Latin asportavit — is a term of art requiring actual removal of property. "Carry" without "away" describes only bearing or holding and does not satisfy the asportation element. Researchers encountering older indictments or treatise language must confirm which phrase appears; the presence or absence of "away" is dispositive to the larceny analysis.

Carry / possess: In weapons law, "carry" and "possess" are related but distinct. Possession is the broader concept — one may constructively possess a firearm stored in a home without carrying it. Carry implies accessibility on or about the person, often in a context suggesting readiness for use. Statutory definitions vary, and a weapons charge may specify one, the other, or both.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Open carry: Bearing a weapon visibly on the person, without concealment.
Concealed carry: Bearing a weapon hidden from ordinary observation, on the person or within immediate reach.
Constitutional carry (permitless carry): Bearing a firearm without a government-issued license, in jurisdictions recognizing this as a constitutional right without licensing preconditions.

Why It Matters in Research

The weapons sense and the larceny sense of "carry" live in completely different areas of the Law Mind corpus, and a researcher must fix which context applies before selecting sources.

For larceny research: Historical sources — including both Anderson's and Black's — make clear that "carry" without "away" was never sufficient to complete the asportation element. Researchers reading old indictment forms or grand jury charges should treat any instance of standalone "carry" with caution and look for whether "away" (or a functional equivalent like "haul away") follows. The Latin formulae — cepit et asportavit — are the origin of "took and carried away," and pre-20th-century sources will often use the Latin. Modern criminal codes have largely absorbed asportation into the definition of theft without preserving the precise phrasing, so direct comparison across eras requires attention to this linguistic shift.

For weapons research: "Carry" is the operative term in a large and actively evolving area of constitutional and statutory law. The corpus on concealed carry licensing, permitless carry expansions, and the constitutional dimensions of the right to bear arms outside the home has developed substantially in the 21st century. Researchers using older secondary sources — including both historical dictionaries here — will find no treatment of the constitutional carry doctrine, which postdates them entirely. The encyclopedia entry on concealed carry laws is the appropriate entry point for this body of material.

Jurisdictional trap: The definition of "carry" in weapons statutes is not uniform. Some states define it as having a weapon on one's person; others extend it to a vehicle's passenger compartment; others treat a locked case in a trunk differently from a loaded weapon within reach. Federal statutes add their own definitions. Never assume a definition from one jurisdiction's weapons statute transfers to another.

Historical Dictionary Support

Anderson's and Black's align on both core meanings and together provide a useful if incomplete picture.

On the larceny sense, both sources agree that "carry" alone is legally insufficient and that "carry away" is the operative phrase. Anderson's is the more explicit of the two on the grammatical point — flagging that "away" or an equivalent modifier must follow "carry" to complete the legal meaning — and notes that "take and haul away" is treated as a functional equivalent. Black's grounds the asportation discussion in the practical doctrine: the slightest movement satisfies the element once the complete phrase is used. Neither source is out of step with modern doctrine on this point; the asportation rule remains recognizable in contemporary theft law, though the precise phrasing has softened.

On the weapons sense, both sources are thin. Anderson's offers only the bare note that "carry" means "to bear, as to carry a weapon," without analysis. Black's does not address the weapons usage in its entry at all. Neither source anticipates the constitutional, regulatory, and licensing framework that now dominates this area. Researchers should treat the historical dictionaries as establishing the baseline meaning only, and look to the encyclopedia and modern statutory sources for the substantive law.

What the historical sources miss: The entire constitutional carry movement, the post-Heller and post-Bruen framework for Second Amendment carry rights, and any treatment of the licensing and permitting architecture that most states maintain. These developments are simply outside the temporal range of either dictionary.

Jurisdictional Note

The weapons meaning of "carry" varies significantly by state statute and has been the subject of ongoing constitutional litigation following Second Amendment decisions expanding the right to bear arms outside the home. Some states require licensure; others have enacted permitless carry statutes; definitions of what constitutes "carrying" in a vehicle differ materially across jurisdictions. The larceny sense is more uniform across common-law jurisdictions but modern consolidated theft statutes have largely replaced the "take and carry away" formula with broader language.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Weapons Offenses — Concealed Carry Laws and Licensing (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia)

CARRYmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

1. In the law of larceny, carry " is not the same as "carry away." "Did take and carry away" is the translation of "cepit et asportavit," used in indictments when processes and records were in Latin. "Away" or some other word must be subjoined to "carry" to modify its general signification. See LARCENY. "Take and haul away" has the same meaning as take and carry away." 2. To bear: as, to weapon." 3. When a party becomes entitled to the payment of costs as an incident to a verdict in his favor, the verdict is said to "carry costs." See DAMAGES. 4. That to carry safely is the obligation of a common carrier, see CARRIER. Carry on. A single act pertaining to a particular business will not constitute one as "carrying on" or engaged in that business.1 Making a contract in Colorado to build and to deliver in Ohio certain machinery was held not "carrying on" business in Colorado. See further FIND, 2. Carry stock. When a broker buys stock and holds it on account of a customer, he is said to "carry stock." 3

CARRYmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

To bear, bear about, sustain, transport, remove, or convey. —O away. In criminal] law. The act of removal or asportation, by which the crime of larceny is completed. and which is essential to constitute it. Com. v. Adams. 7 Gray (Mass.) 45; Com. v. Pratt, 132 Mass. 246; Gettinger

CARRYv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To convey or transport in any manner from one place to another; to bear; -- often with away or off. When he dieth he small carry nothing away. Ps. xiix. 17. Devout men carried Stephen to his burial. Acts viii, 2. Another carried the intelligence to Russell. Macaulay. The sound will be carried, at the least, twenty miles. Bacon. To have or hold as a burden, while moving from place to place; to have upon or about one's person; to bear; as, to carry a wound; to carry an unborn child. If the ideas . . . were carried along with us in our minds. Locke. To move; to convey by force; to impel; to conduct; to lead or guide. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet. Shak. He carried away all his cattle. Gen. xxxi. 18. Passion and revenge will carry them too far. Locke. To transfer from one place (as a country, book, or column) to another; as, to carry the war from Greece into Asia; to carry an account to the ledger; to carry a number in adding figures. To convey by extension or continuance; to extend; as, to carry the chimney through the roof; to carry a road ten miles farther. To bear or uphold successfully through conflict, as a leader or principle; hence, to succeed in, as in a contest; to bring to a successful issue; to win; as, to carry an election. "The greater part carries it." Shak. The carrying of our main point. Addison. To get possession of by force; to capture. The town would have been carried in the end. Bacon. To contain; to comprise; to bear the aspect of ; to show or exhibit; to imply. He thought it carried something of argument in it. Watts. It carries too great an imputation of ignorance. Lacke. To bear (one's self); to behave, to conduct or demean; -- with the refexive pronouns. He carried himself so insolently in the house, and out of the house, to all persons, that he became odious. Clarendon. To bear the charges or burden of holding or having, as stocks, merchandise, etc., from one time to another; as, a merchant is carrying a large stock; a farm carries a mortgage; a broker carries stock for a customer; to carry a life insurance. Carry arms (Mil. Drill), a command of the Manual of Arms directing the soldier to hold his piece in the right hand, the barrel resting against the hollow of the shoulder in a nearly perpendicular position. In this position the soldier is said to stand, and the musket to be held, at carry.  -- To carry all before one, to overcome all obstacles; to have uninterrupted success.  -- To carry arms (a) To bear weapons. (b) To serve as a soldier.  -- To carry away. (a) (Naut.) to break off; to lose; as, to carry away a fore-topmast. (b) To take possession of the mind; to charm; to delude; as, to be carried by music, or by temptation.  -- To carry coals, to bear indignities tamely, a phrase used by early dramatists, perhaps from the mean nature of the occupation. Halliwell.  -- To carry coals to Newcastle, to take things to a place where they already abound; to lose one's labor.  -- To carry off (a) To remove to a distance. (b) To bear away as from the power or grasp of others. (c) To remove from life; as, the plague carried off thousands.  -- To carry on (a) To carry farther; to advance, or help forward; to continue; as, to carry on a design. (b) To manage, conduct, or prosecute; as, to carry on husbandry or trade.  -- To carry out. (a) To bear from within. (b) To put into execution; to bring to a successful issue. (c) To sustain to the end; to continue to the end.  -- To carry through. (a) To convey through the midst of. (b) To support to the end; to sustain, or keep from falling, or being subdued. "Grace will carry us . . . through all difficulties." Hammond. (c) To complete; to bring to a succesful issue; to succeed.  -- To carry up, to convey or extend in an upward course or direction; to build.  -- To carry weight. (a) To be handicapped; to have an extra burden, as when one rides or runs. "He carries weight, he rides a race" Cowper. (b) To have influence.

CARRYv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To act as a bearer; to convey anything; as, to fetch and carry. To have propulsive power; to propel; as, a gun or mortar carries well. To hold the head; -- said of a horse; as, to carry well i. e., to hold the head high, with arching neck. To have earth or frost stick to the feet when running, as a hare. Johnson. To carry on, to behave in a wild, rude, or romping manner. [Colloq.]

CARRYn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A tract of land, over which boats or goods are carried between two bodies of navigable water; a carrying place; a portage. Etym: [U.S.]

carryverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

To lift (something) and take it to another place; to transport (something) by lifting. | To notionally transfer from one place (such as a country, book, or column) to another. | To convey by extension or continuance; to extend. | To move; to convey using force | To lead or guide. | To stock or supply (something); to have in store. | To adopt (something); take (something) over. | To adopt or resolve on, especially in a deliberative assembly | In an addition, to transfer the quantity in excess of what is countable in the units in a column to the column immediately to the left in order to be added there. | To have, hold, possess or maintain (something). | To be transmitted; to travel. | To insult, to diss. | To capture a ship by coming alongside and boarding. | To transport (the ball) whilst maintaining possession. | For the ball, having been hit in the air, to reach a fielder without touching the ground (whether or not the fielder catches it). | To have on one’s person. | To be pregnant (with). | To have propulsive power; to propel. | To hold the head; said of a horse. | To have earth or frost stick to the feet when running, as a hare. | To bear or uphold successfully, especially through conflict, for example a leader or principle | To succeed in (e.g. a contest); to succeed in; to win. | To get possession of by force; to capture. | To contain; to comprise; have a particular aspect; to show or exhibit | To bear (oneself); to behave or conduct. | To bear the charges or burden of holding or having, as stocks, merchandise, etc., from one time to another. | To have a weapon on one's person; to be armed. | (transitive or, rarely, intransitive) To be disproportionately responsible for a team's success or for counteracting teammates' underperformance. | To physically transport (in the general sense, not necessarily by lifting) | To bear a firearm, such as a gun.

carrynoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

A manner of transporting or lifting something; the grip or position in which something is carried. | A tract of land over which boats or goods are carried between two bodies of navigable water; a portage. | The bit or digit that is carried in an addition operation. | The benefit or cost of owning an asset over time. | The distance travelled by the ball when struck, until it hits the ground. | Carried interest. | The sky; cloud-drift.

Carryname

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

A surname.

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