The C++ Interview Book

std::move does not move anything. At runtime, it does nothing at all. It does not even generate a single byte of executable code.

std::move is in fact just a tool to cast whatever its input is to an rvalue reference. That is all it does — an unconditional cast.

Under the hood, std::move is essentially a static_cast to an rvalue reference:

// Simplified implementation of std::move
template<typename T>
constexpr std::remove_reference_t<T>&& move(T&& param) noexcept {
  return static_cast<std::remove_reference_t<T>&&>(param);
}

Applying std::move to an object tells the compiler that the object is eligible to be moved from. Whether a move actually happens depends on whether the receiving context — a move constructor, a move assignment operator, or any function overloaded on rvalue references — exists and is selected by overload resolution.