quit

• quight (obsolete)

• enPR: kwĭt, IPA^(key): /kwɪt/, [kʰw̥ɪt]

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• Rhymes: -ɪt

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.

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'.

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.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 36, line 510:

     God will relent, and quit thee all his debt;

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.).
   • 1605, William Shakespeare, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Edmund, enkindle all the sparkes of Nature
     To quit this horrid acte.

   • 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC:

     that judge that quits each soul his hire

9. (reflexive, archaic) To conduct or acquit (oneself); to behave (in a specified way).
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 4:9:

     Be strong and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 98, lines 1710–1711:

     Samſon hath quit himſelf
     Like Samſon,

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.).
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

      Vnthankfull wretch (said he) is this the meed,
      With which her soueraigne mercy thou doest quight?

    • 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, III.2:

      Forgive me, Rogero: 'tis my fate
      To love thy friend and quit thy love with hate.

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)

    • 1515–c. 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: […]

• 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."

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:quit.

Pam Peters, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage, Cambridge University Press, p. 453.

Probably of imitative origin.

quit (plural quits)

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

• guitguit

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

quit

1. third-person singular past historic of quérir

quit

1. third-person singular present active indicative of queō

quit

1. first-person singular present indicative of quidier