quit

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to give up in the face of defeat of lacking hope

   The team was down a player but would not quit.

2. 2
   verb

   to go away or leave

   I quit the bar at around one in the morning.

3. 3
   verb

   to turn away from

   They quit each other after a long argument.

4. 4
   verb

   to give up or retire from a position

   I quit my board seat after ten years of service.

5. 5
   verb

   to put an end to a state or an activity

   I quit smoking three years ago.

6. 6
   adj

   Released from obligation, penalty, etc; free, clear, or rid.

   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'.

7. 7
   verb

   To leave (a place).

   The British quit India in the 1940s.

8. 8
   verb

   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?

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. 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.