carried away

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

carried away

1. past participle of carry away

Adjective

carried away (comparative more carried away, superlative most carried away)

1. (idiomatic) Made excessively emotional or excited, so that one goes too far.

   I only meant to buy one new dress, but I got carried away and ended up with five.

   • 1852, Frank Edward Smedley, Lewis Arundel; Or, The Railroad of Life, page 406:

     […] the unusual degree of taste and energy which Annie, who appeared carried away by the interest of the drama, infused into her reading, […]

   • 1985, Spencer S. M. Tizora, Crossroads:

     She sounds carried away.

   • 1988, Joseph A. Porter, Shakespeare's Mercutio: His History and Drama:

     As the speech continues , Mercutio seems carried away by it, so that Romeo 's interruption (addressing Mercutio by name for the first time, as if to call him to himself) is like the breaking of a rapture.

   • 2022 December 10, Harry Taylor, quoting Kwasi Kwarteng, “Liz Truss and I ‘got carried away’ writing mini-budget, admits Kwasi Kwarteng”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     “People got carried away, myself included,” Kwarteng told the Financial Times. “There was no tactical subtlety whatsoever.

Synonyms

• gone overboard

Related terms

• carry away

Translations

excessively emotional

• Finnish: viedä liian pitkälle, mennä liian pitkälle
• French: emballé (fr)
• Hungarian: elragadtatja magát, elszalad vele a ló
• Polish: dać się ponieść pf, dawać się ponieść
• Portuguese: empolgado (pt)
• Spanish: embalado (es), enajenado (es), extasiado (es), entusiasmado (es), distraído (es)

See also

• get ahead of oneself

Further reading

• “be carried away”, in Collins English Dictionary.