Carrying-on

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Improper, immoral behavior. uncountable

    "-- One thing I know for sure - a person can't sneeze in this town without somebody offerin' him a handkerchief -- What you mean? -- Nothing. It's an awful small town for any kinda carryin' on...And some people got a lotta guns.""

  2. 2
    Irritating or self-indulgent behavior. uncountable

    "I am bored by stupid discussions. By the quadrille of argumentation. The insolent carrying on of intellectuals. The empty formulas of philosophy."

Example

More examples

"-- One thing I know for sure - a person can't sneeze in this town without somebody offerin' him a handkerchief -- What you mean? -- Nothing. It's an awful small town for any kinda carryin' on...And some people got a lotta guns.""

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.