carry off

Verb

carry off (third-person singular simple present carries off, present participle carrying off, simple past and past participle carried off)

1. (transitive) To transport away.
   • I need a truck to carry off all this furniture.
2. (transitive) To steal or kidnap
   • Bandits carried off most of the money.
   • In spite of the importance of this route it remained until a few years ago very insecure. Overhung almost its entire length by the inaccessible fastnesses of Lololand, the passing caravans dared journey only with convoy, and even then were frequently overwhelmed by raiders from the hills, who...1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China
3. (idiomatic, transitive) To act convincingly; to succeed at giving the impression of (e.g.) knowledge, confidence, or familiarity.
   • The actress carried off a difficult performance with dash.
   • He is carrying off his act, convincing them he was a nuclear scientist.
4. (transitive) To achieve (something); to succeed at (something).
   • Despite a slow start in the race, he carried it off in the end.
   • We didn't think they'd finish by the deadline, but they carried it off.

   Synonyms:

   pull off

5. (transitive) To cause the death of.
   • Malaria carried off many people.
   • I was now entering on my fifteenth year, when the worſt of ills befell me in the loſs of my tender fond parents, who were both carried off by the smallpox, within a few days of each other; […].1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths]...
6. (transitive) To win (a prize, etc.).
   • After a closely-fought match, Oxford carried off the trophy.