1. To sustain the weight or burden of; to hold or bear (more weight than a single person can carry).
2. To convey or transport (carrying the coal from one state to another).
3. To possess and convey (a firearm) in a vehicle, including the locked glove compartment or trunk of a car (he carried the guns in his trunk). • The United States Supreme Court adopted this definition in interpreting the phrase carries a firearm as used in a statute imposing a mandatory prison term on a person who uses or carries a firearm while committing a drug-trafficking crime. Muscarello v. U.S., 524 U.S. 125, 118 S.Ct. 1911 (1998). [Cases: Weapons 10.]
4. In a figurative sense, to possess or hold (insurance, etc.) (the decedent did not carry life insurance).
5. Parliamentary law. To adopt. • In this sense, the verb may be either intransitive (the motion carries) or transitive (in a passive construction) (the motion is carried). See ADOPTION(5).
6. To provide funds or credit for the payment of (stock, etc.), often as an advance, for an agreed-on period (the investor carried the stock purchases for eight months).
7. To absorb the cost of holding or having, usu. temporarily (the business will carry the debt for another quarter).
