Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To depart from; leave: "You and I are on the point of quitting the theater of our exploits” ( Horatio Nelson).
- v. To leave the company of: had to quit the gathering in order to be home by midnight.
- v. To give up; relinquish: quit a job.
- v. To abandon or put aside; forsake: advised them to quit their dissipated ways.
- v. To cease or discontinue: asked them to quit talking; quit smoking.
- v. Computer Science To exit (an application).
- v. To rid oneself of by paying: quit a debt.
- v. To release from a burden or responsibility.
- v. To conduct (oneself) in a specified way: Quit yourselves like adults.
- v. To cease performing an action. See Synonyms at stop.
- v. To give up, as in defeat; stop.
- v. To leave a job.
- adj. Absolved of a duty or an obligation; free.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Discharged or released from a debt, penalty, or obligation; on even terms; absolved; free; clear.
- To satisfy, as a claim or debt; discharge, as an obligation or duty; make payment for or of; pay; repay; requite.
- To set free; release; absolve; acquit; exonerate.
- To free, as from something harmful or oppressing; relieve; clear; liberate: with of.
- To meet the claims upon, or expectations entertained of; conduct; acquit: used reflexively.
- To complete; spend: said of time.
- To depart from; go away from; leave.
- To resign; give up; let go.
- To forsake; abandon.
- In archery, to discharge; shoot.
- To extract; get rid of.
- To remove by force.
- To cease; stop; give over.
- Synonyms and Desert, Abandon, etc. See forsake.
- n. Same as queet.
- n. The popular name of numerous small birds of Jamaica, belonging to different genera and families. Banana-quits are species of Certhiola, as C. flaveola; grass-quits are various small sparrow-like birds, as Spermophila olivacea; the blue quit is a tanager, Euphonia jamaica; the orange quit is another tanager, Tanagrella ruficollis.
- n. A term introduced by Professor H. A. Newton to denote the point on the celestial sphere from which the motion of a body is at any moment directed: thus, the earth's quit is always a point on the ecliptic about 90° east of the sun. The quit is opposite to the goal. See goal, 7.
Wiktionary
- v. To pay (a debt, fine etc.).
- v. To repay (someone) for (something).
- v. To repay, pay back (a good deed, injury etc.).
- v. To conduct oneself, acquit oneself, to behave (in a specified way).
- v. To abandon, renounce (a thing).
- v. To leave (a place).
- v. To resign from (a job, office, position, etc.).
- v. To stop, give up (an activity) (usually + gerund or verbal noun).
- v. To close (an application).
- v. simple past tense and past participle of quit.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Any one of numerous species of small passerine birds native of tropical America. See Banana quit, under banana, and guitguit.
- adj. Released from obligation, charge, penalty, etc.; free; clear; absolved; acquitted.
- v. To set at rest; to free, as from anything harmful or oppressive; to relieve; to clear; to liberate.
- v. To release from obligation, accusation, penalty, or the like; to absolve; to acquit.
- v. To discharge, as an obligation or duty; to meet and satisfy, as a claim or debt; to make payment for or of; to requite; to repay.
- v. To meet the claims upon, or expectations entertained of; to conduct; to acquit; -- used reflexively.
- v. To carry through; to go through to the end.
- v. To have done with; to cease from; to stop; hence, to depart from; to leave; to forsake
- v. To go away; to depart; to stop doing a thing; to cease.
WordNet 3.0
- v. turn away from; give up
- v. go away or leave
- v. give up in the face of defeat of lacking hope; admit defeat
- v. put an end to a state or an activity
- v. give up or retire from a position
Etymologies
- Middle English quiten, to release, from Old French quiter, from Medieval Latin quiētāre, quītāre, from Latin quiētus, at rest; see quiet.
Examples
“I do not know the meaning of the word quit," he said.”
“Sports figures, as a rule, seem to be the ones least likely to understand the word quit: Those who lack it in their dictionaries and vocabularies include the NASCAR owner and former driver Richard Childress, William "the Refrigerator" Perry, Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat, as well as the Philadelphia Flyers, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Chicago Bears, and of course the Red Sox.”
“Gingrich does not no the meaning of the word "quit".”
“Old Jane, never at a loss for a cliche, said: "The word 'quit' is not in my vocabulary.”
“Palin 'quit' the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission after exposing the ethics violations of her own party, she then went on to become Alaska's first female and youngest governor ... but that would be something called 'context and contrast' ... two key elements that must be removed in order to pursue 'The Politics of Personsal Destruction'. mark ferbet, kansas city, mo.”
“A word "quit" is not found in the dictionary in the Hillary house.”
“So to take the opportunity and then decide to quit is not only lame beyond belief, but a slap in the face to all the people who tried for that place on the show, and lost out to the quitters.”
The Huffington Post: Tallulah Morehead: Survivor 21: Infants vs. Senior Citizens : Spinning Marty
“The increase in the number of people who quit is small in comparison with the total number in the population who still smoke.”
Matthew Yglesias » The Health Care System Should Give People Good Advice About Health
“When Palin quit the Alaska governorship earlier this year, she blamed political enemies for harassing her out of office.”
“Boutin quit last January after five months at CHEC.”
The Washington Post: Teacher/blogger critiques highly ranked school
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘quit’.
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Q words
Ever get stuck with the random bunch of letters and a q and not know any words? Well, maybe this will help.
quire, quais, quai, queer, quoit, quitrent, quit, quipster, question, quest, questing, quests and 208 more...
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Stoppage
Stop words.
stop, freeze, hault, quit, nevermore, end, finish, complete, done, final, yield, pause and 14 more...
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Past tense in -t.
Some words are always like this. Some only when British or archaic. Some are just fun.
built, spent, bent, spilt, spoilt, ruint, thought, caught, brought, wisht, pent, spelt and 73 more...
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Common Words with Uncommon Letters
Words we see every day that are spelled with an X, Q, or Z.

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