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Date Posted: 21:28:49 02/08/03 Sat
Author: shumitto
Subject: voiceguy2000
In reply to: shumitto 's message, "answerway works" on 21:24:17 02/08/03 Sat

I cannot improve on Chazz, but I want to make sure that you have had all aspects of your question covered.

Of course, you understand that the literal meaning of " carry off" would involving carrying some object and taking it away: " The thieves did not have time to carry off all of the valuables."

As Chazz points out, however, the idiom using " carry off" involves succeeding at something, which I believe addresses two of the terms in your question, namely " managing" and " handling." The French have a verb d�brouiller, which has no direct English equivalent, to refer to a person' s quality of resourcefulness, ability to get out of a fix, or to disentangle themselves and/or their circumstances, that conveys some of the quality of " carry off" in its idiomatic use. In particular, the expression tends to be used when there is some question about whether the person will succeed or not:
Mr. Jenkins has never taught teenagers before, and now he has 62 of our biggest troublemakers in his class. If he can carry that off, he deserves a medal.

President Bush wants to eliminate all taxes on dividends, but some people doubt whether he can carry it off.

Bill Clinton managed to survive one of the juiciest scandals in Presidential history. Frankly, I did not think he would be able to carry it off.

When I gave you that project, Jane, I know you were doubtful, but I had complete confidence that you could carry it off.
I am not sure about your third term, " covering up." It is not something that comes naturally to mind with " carry off." Of course, one could use " carry off" in a sentence concerning whether or not a person would succeed in covering something up, but the issue would be whether or not they succeeded, not whether or not they covered something up. In other words, I am not aware of any usage of " carry off" to mean " conceal" or " disguise" or " hide."

answerway

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Replies:

Choux -- shumitto, 21:31:07 02/08/03 Sat