Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Slang Immediate, complete withdrawal from something on which one has become dependent, such as an addictive drug.
- n. Slang Blunt language or procedural method.
- n. Slang A cold fish.
Wiktionary
- n. The sudden and complete withdrawal of a dependent substance, especially of a drug
- n. The physiological effects of such a withdrawal
- adv. idiomatic Not gradually; all at once. Refers especially to quitting a habit by force of will rather than by a gradual reduction.
WordNet 3.0
- n. complete and abrupt withdrawal of all addictive drugs or anything else on which you have become dependent
- n. a blunt expression of views
Etymologies
- From the goose bumps that people get when they're cold turkey. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“If you’re in the habit of drinking bottled beverages containing 30 or more radiance-robbing grams of sugar, you might either stop the sugar cold turkey which is really not painful if you sweeten the drinks smartly or progress gently down the sugar gram scale as your taste buds evolve.”
“I tell myself it’s just to help with the transitionthat going cold turkey was a bad ideathat this is going to be a short cutting cycle.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cold turkey’.
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Songs Named After Food
raspberry beret, pineapple jam, on top of spaghetti, yes, we have no b..., don't sit under t..., sugar, sugar, strawberry fields..., catfish, glass onion, honey pie, lady marmalade, no sugar tonight and 70 more...
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turkey phrases/words
how turkey is used
scrub-turkey, scrub turkey, turkey-apple, turkey-back, turkey-beard, turkey-berry, turkey-berry tree, turkey-bird, turkey-blossom, turkey-bush, turkey-butcher, turkey-buzzard and 66 more...
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Talkin' Turkey
Big-tent list of all things turkey, from the name of the country to colloquial phrases containing the term turkey. Anything turkey-related is welcome.
turkey bacon, turkey and stuffing, Turkey, Naragansett, turkey tower, USS Turkey, turkey moray, tofurky, cold turkey, box office bomb, Turkey, NC, tom turkey and 37 more...
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Cold
Cold, cold, cold storage, cold shoulder, cold sore, cold front, cold water, cold turkey, cold fusion, cold sweat, cold shower, cold wave and 10 more...
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that's just beastly!
cat-o-nine-tails, snake in the grass, puppy love, white elephant, crocodile tears, monkey business, keep the wolf fro..., culture vulture, black sheep of th..., scapegoat, ugly duckling, swan song and 260 more...
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Special Beasts
I'm looking for compounds or phrases where the character of an animal is essential to the meaning, yet the term is usable in general conversation.
scapegoat, bull market, sacred cow, bear market, hangdog, cat o' nine tails, clothes horse, mousey, donkey drop, black sheep, horseplay, ducks and drakes and 94 more...
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Noah's Park
Hello, and Welcome™! Come and visit our most diverse land of our Animalesque™ adventures. Here at Noah's Park™ we have Virtually All You'd Ever Want To See™. An experience that is related to ani...
sheep's eyes, doe-eyed, cat-eyed, bug-eyed, cat's paw, black swan, leapfrog, menagerie, cold turkey, card shark, snail's pace, bull's eye and 362 more...
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Wirds of a Feather
Phrases and figures of speech in which birds are featured. Or feathers. Or such like.
a little bird tol..., to have an albatr..., birds of a feathe..., in the catbird seat, cold turkey, to cook one's goose, don't count your ..., to have one's duc..., to eat crow, a feather in one'..., for the birds, flip the bird and 122 more...
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Amusing words
interesting words
bonce, furcate, tapioca, tillage, desalinate, garish, litmus, roadhog, azoic, haberdasher, imbroglio, polliwog and 802 more...
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Animalia Wordia
Words or short phrases with animal names in them. Since I already have a dedicated list for 'monkey' words I shall leave them out of this one for the moment.
paper tiger, pigeon-hearted, lion-hearted, sacred cow, chicken heart, fraidy cat, scaredy-cat, snake oil, can of worms, snake pit, rat's nest, stool pigeon and 114 more...
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Idioms or Phrases or "expressions"
like nobody's bui..., soap up, plug away, country club, horse whisperer, cease and desist, eye of the beholder, small-claims court, nut job, heebie-jeebies, hole in the wall, black-tie and 101 more...
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Watchmen (2009)
Words from 2009 'Watchmen' film.
adversary, certitude, deterrent, stockpile, posturing, minuteman, vigilante, toss, flip, spook, carcass, tread and 174 more...
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A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Words from a 2006 'A Scanner Darkly' film.
aphid, scramble, purport, toll, lurch, cold turkey, pharmacopoeia, vasoconstriction, inordinate, front money, meth, providence and 67 more...
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Fanciful Beasts
sun dog, hot dog, dust bunny, shutter dog, spelling bee, cash cow, jailbird, copycat, paper tiger, sewing bee, charley horse, high horse and 47 more...
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Gone fishy
fishy, moon juice, fishmonger, myriad, zenzizenzizenzic, urinal etiquitte, cold turkey, ambient, moldwarp, pillow talk, fishwife, weirdo and 12 more...
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The Roaring Twenties
A selection of words and phrases that entered the language between 1920 and 1929. Primary sources for this list are:
There's a Word For It by Sol Steinmetz (2010, Harmony Books, New Y...nobrow, booboisie, robot, It girl, scofflaw, Babbitt, bozo, feedback, icky, daiquiri, subprime, T-shirt and 27 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cold turkey.
gangerh Hey, z, you nicked this! Put it back! Sep 23, 2008