[f. prec. in various unconnected applications, of dialectal or technical origin.]
1. A means of transport; a vehicle. b. spec. ‘A two-wheeled barrow’ (Jamieson). Sc. and north. dial.
1605. Stowe, Ann., 1272. On the last of March, Henry Barrow and John Grenewood were brought to Tyborne in a carry.
1820. Caledonian Mercury, 20 July, 4/3. Alexander then asked the loan of her carrie.
1863. Atkinson, Danby Provinc., Carry, a kind of waggon with solid floor but unplanked sides … Used for carting stone, wood, etc., and in hay and harvest time.
1887. Scott. Leader, 20 May, 4. One of the … horses … started, violently throwing Wilson on to the front of the ‘carry.’
c. (See quot.)
1881. Antrim & Down Gloss. (E. D. S.), Carry, a weir or mill-lead.
† 2. Falconry. Manner of carrying. Obs.
1618. Latham, 2nd Bk. Falconry (1633), 90. Shee is a buzzard; shee is of a bad carry, he can make her do nothing.
3. The position required by the command to ‘carry arms’; cf. CARRY v. 36.
1833. Regul. & Instr. Cavalry, I. 170. The lance to be brought to the ‘Carry.’
4. The range (of a gun); cf. CARRY v. 9.
1858. Mayne Reid, Osceola, lxxxiii. 393. From where they had fired, the glade was beyond the ‘carry’ of their guns.
5. A portage between navigable rivers or channels. U.S. and Canada. Cf. CARRIAGE.
1860. All Y. Round, No. 75. 588. We crossed the carry at day-break.
1884. Harper’s Mag., June, 125/1. Boats came to St. Louis from Montreal with but few ‘portages’ or ‘carries.’
6. The drift of the clouds as they are carried along by the wind. Sc.
1819. H. Busk, Vestriad, V. 870. Still towering, till the faithless currents change, And adverse carries floating hopes derange.
1828. J. Wilson, in Blackw. Mag., XXIV. 292. The clouds are driving fast aloft in a carry from the sea.
1851. R. White, Madeira, 87. The direction of the winds … have been registered from the ‘carry’ of the lower strata of clouds.
b. The clouds collectively, firmament, sky.
1788. Picken, Poems, 60 (Jam.). I min’ … sin’ he used to speel Aboon the carry.
1807–10. Tannahill, Sleeping, Maggie. Mirk and rainy is the night, No a starn in a’ the carry.
