quits

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /kwɪts/ UK /kwɪts/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
on even terms with someone, owing nothing to either side

Pay me back the ten dollars and we'll call it quits.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · on even terms with someone,... even square equal settled

Opposites

indebted owing

Word family

Related forms quitquittanceacquit requite

Appears in

Idioms (1)

See all

call it quits
to stop doing something, especially after deciding it is not working

Proverbs (1)

See all

A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits

Etymology

From Middle English quit ('free, clear of debt'), from Old French quite, from Medieval Latin quitus, variant of quietus ('at rest, free, discharged'), from Latin quies ('rest').

quite Old French quietus Latin quies Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# quits

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /kwɪts/
**IPA (UK):** /kwɪts/

## Meanings
1. on even terms with someone, owing nothing to either side

## Examples
- Pay me back the ten dollars and we'll call it quits.

## Synonyms
- even
- square
- equal
- settled

## Antonyms
- indebted
- owing

## Related Forms
- quit
- quittance
- acquit
- requite

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: quite
- Root: quietus
- Root: quies

## Etymology
From Middle English quit ('free, clear of debt'), from Old French quite, from Medieval Latin quitus, variant of quietus ('at rest, free, discharged'), from Latin quies ('rest').

## AI Etymology
Quits comes from Middle English quit ('free, clear of debt'), from Old French quite, from Medieval Latin quitus, variant of quietus ('at rest, free, discharged'), from Latin quies ('rest'). The historical chain includes Old French quite, Latin quietus, and Latin quies. Older glosses in the chain include "free, clear of debt", "at rest, free, discharged", and "rest", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, quits is best read as borrowing, yielding an English adjective shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as an adjective, with the sense "on even terms with someone, owing nothing to either side". related forms include quit, quittance, acquit, and requite. The result is an English adjective whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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