Wiktionary

quit

See also: quít, quît, and quịt

English

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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  • enPR: kwĭt, IPA(key): /kwɪt/, [kʰw̥ɪt]
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪt

Etymology 1

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From Middle English quiten, quyten, from Anglo-Norman quitter, Old French quitter, from quitte (“acquitted, quit”), ultimately from Latin quietus.

Compare Dutch kwijten (“to quit”), German Low German quitten (“to quit”), German quitten, quittieren, Danish kvitte, Swedish qvitta, kvitta (“to quit, leave, set off”), Icelandic kvitta.

Adjective

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quit (not comparable)

  1. (usually followed by of) Released from obligation, penalty, etc; free, clear, or rid.
    • 1990, Claude de Bèze, translated by E. W. Hutchinson, 1688 revolution in Siam: the memoir of Father de Bèze, s.j, University Press, page 153:
      With mounting anger the King denounced the pair, both father and son, and was about to condemn them to death when his strength gave out. Faint and trembling he was unable to walk and the sword fell from his hands as he murmured: 'May the Protector of the Buddhist Faith grant me but seven more days grace of life to be quit of this disloyal couple, father and son'.

Verb

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quit (third-person singular simple present quits, present participle quitting, simple past and past participle quit or quitted)

  1. (transitive) To leave (a place).
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
      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?”
    • 1865, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, page 33:
      He quitted the lake on the 23rd of September, and on the 4th of October arrived at Queenstown, on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, having succeded in finding a transitable route.
    • 1912, Edward Stanley Poole, transl., The Thousand and One Nights‎[1]:
      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.
    • 1943 January and February, Chas. S. Lake, “Some C.M.Es. I Have Known: IV—H. A. Ivatt”, in Railway Magazine, page 32:
      At Malta the chief engineer of the ship, who always had been a good friend of mine, urged me to quit the sea; "otherwise," he said, "if you stay too long, you may, like myself, be condemned to wander about the world all your life and see your home only occasionally."
  2. (transitive) To set at rest; to free, as from anything harmful or oppressive; to relieve; to clear; to liberate.
    • 1688, William Wake, Preparation for Death:
      To quit you […] of this fear, […] you have already lookt Death in the face; what have you found so terrible in it?
  3. (transitive) To release from obligation, accusation, penalty, etc.; to absolve; to acquit.
  4. (transitive) To abandon, renounce (a thing).
  5. (transitive, intransitive) To resign from (a job, office, position, etc.).
    After having to work overtime without being paid, I quit my job.
  6. (transitive, intransitive) To stop, give up (an activity). [(usually) with gerund; or with verbal noun]
    John is planning to quit smoking.
  7. (transitive, computing) To close (an application).
  8. (transitive, archaic) To pay (a debt, fine etc.).
  9. (reflexive, archaic) To conduct or acquit (oneself); to behave (in a specified way).
  10. (transitive, archaic) To carry through; to go through to the end.
    • 1595–1609, Samuel Daniel, Civil Wars:
      Never worthy prince a day did quit
      With greater hazard and with more renown.
  11. (transitive, obsolete) To repay, pay back (a good deed, injury etc.).
  12. (transitive, obsolete) To repay (someone) for (something).
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XIV, in Le Morte Darthur, book II (in Middle English):
      I was but late att a Iustynge
      and there I Iusted with a knyghte that is broder vnto kynge Pellam
      and twyes smote I hym doune
      & thenne he promysed to quyte me on my best frynde
      and so he wounded my sone that can not be hole tyll I haue of that knyghtes blood
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • c. 1515–1516, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c., published 1568:
      But if that I knewe what his name hight,
      For clatering of me I would him ſone quight;
      For his falſe lying, of that I ſpake never,
      I could make him ſhortly repent him forever: […]
Usage notes
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  • The usual past tense of quit is now quit in most senses, although dictionaries may allow quitted as an alternative. Quitted is most commonly used to mean "departed", e.g., "Caesar quitted the neighborhood of Rome, and made for Campania with three legions."
Conjugation
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Conjugation of quit
infinitive (to) quit
present tense past tense
1st-person singular quit quit, quitted
2nd-person singular quit, quittest† quit, quitted, quittedst†
3rd-person singular quits, quitteth† quit, quitted
plural quit
subjunctive quit quit, quitted
imperative quit —
participles quitting quit, quitted

†Archaic or obsolete.

Quotations
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Derived terms
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Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
References
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Pam Peters, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage, Cambridge University Press, p. 453.

Etymology 2

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Probably of imitative origin.

Noun

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quit (plural quits)

  1. Any of numerous species of small passerine birds native to tropical America. [from 19th c.]
Derived terms
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Further reading

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French

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Verb

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quit

  1. third-person singular past historic of quérir

Latin

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Verb

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quit

  1. third-person singular present active indicative of queō

Old French

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Verb

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quit

  1. first-person singular present indicative of quidier
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