quit
//kwɪt//
Forms
- Plural
- quits
- present (v1)
- quit
- past (v2)
- quit
- past participle (v3)
- quit
- present participle
- quitting
- 3rd person singular
- quits
Definitions
1.Released from obligation, penalty, etc; free, clear, or rid.
- It's not easy to quit smoking.
- That's not the reason that I quit.
- He decided to quit smoking.
1.To leave (a place).
- The British quit India in the 1940s.
- The lions, if they left not the forest, would capture no prey; and the arrow, if it quitted not the bow, would not strike the mark.
- Jones had no sooner quitted the room, than the petty-fogger, in a whispering tone, asked Mrs Whitefield, “If she knew who that fine spark was?”
2.To set at rest; to free, as from anything harmful or oppressive; to relieve; to clear; to liberate.
- To quit you […] of this fear, […]you have already lookt Death in the face; what have you found so terrible in it?
3.To release from obligation, accusation, penalty, etc.; to absolve; to acquit.
4.To abandon, renounce (a thing).
1.Any of numerous species of small passerine birds native to tropical America.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2216
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English quiten, quyten, from Anglo-Norman quitter, Old French quitter, from quitte (“acquitted, quit”), ultimately from Latin quietus, which itself derives from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyéh₁-ti-s, from *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest”). Doublet of coy, quite, quiet, and quietus.