These words are alike in referring to the moving of objects or people through space. Carry and bear both suggest the supporting of a load, but of the two only carry necessarily implies movement from place to place. A donkey can bear a heavy load simply by standing still, but carrying the load implies moving it somewhere: The bridge was designed to bear the heaviest load any train could carry . Bear , of course, can suggest movement as well, in which case a dignity of comportment and style is suggested: the royal carriage bearing the queen and her consort. Carry , on the other hand, need not necessarily emphasize the heaviness of the thing being moved: carrying only a small handbag and a pair of gloves. Bear has an additional connotation of suffering not implied by carry : He bore with him all his life the memory of her painful death.

Transport and haul are more formal and technical than these; transport is normally restricted to the shipment of goods or people considered as fright, while haul refers only to freight: ships to transport troops to the battlefield; semi-trailers to haul interstate freight. Transport , more than carry and haul emphasizes movement to a goal or destination. They contrast with the style implied in bear by stressing the mere physical event of shipment as a problem in logistics.

Bring and take are the most informal of all these; bring refers to movement towards the speaker, take to movement away from the speaker. Both are often used imperatively: Take away this ghastly veal cutlet and bring me my slippers. In actual usage, the to or from distinction is not always observed; both may also imply an accompanied or guided movement rather than one in which one thing carries another.

• Take me to the nearest hospital; The ski life will bring you within a few feet of the mountaintop.

Convey was in Shakespeare’s time a simple synonym for bring or take . In this sense it is now extremely formal and is mainly used in referring to the transmitting of a message through an intermediary.

• Convey my best wishes to the rest of your family; The ambassador personally conveyed the president’s message to the premier.

Convey does not necessarily imply actual movement.

• If my letter conveyed the impression that I was indifferent, please forgive me; His tone conveyed his real feelings more truly than his words.