quit

English Online Dictionary. What means quit‎? What does quit mean?

English

Alternative forms

• quight (obsolete)

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

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

quit (not comparable)

1. (usually followed by of) Released from obligation, penalty, etc; free, clear, or rid.

Verb

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

1. (transitive, archaic) To pay (a debt, fine etc.).
2. (transitive, obsolete) To repay (someone) for (something).
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.:

     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: […]

3. (transitive, obsolete) To repay, pay back (a good deed, injury etc.).
4. (reflexive, archaic) To conduct or acquit (oneself); to behave (in a specified way).
5. (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.

6. (transitive) To set at rest; to free, as from anything harmful or oppressive; to relieve; to clear; to liberate.
7. (transitive) To release from obligation, accusation, penalty, etc.; to absolve; to acquit.
8. (transitive) To abandon, renounce (a thing).
9. (transitive) To leave (a place).
10. (transitive, intransitive) To resign from (a job, office, position, etc.).

11. (transitive, intransitive) To stop, give up (an activity) (usually + gerund or verbal noun).

12. (transitive, computing) To close (an application).

Usage notes

• 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

Quotations

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

Derived terms

Translations

References

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

Etymology 2

Probably of imitative origin.

Noun

quit (plural quits)

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

Derived terms

Related terms

• guitguit

Further reading

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

French

Verb

quit

1. third-person singular past historic of quérir

Latin

Verb

quit

1. third-person singular present active indicative of queō

Old French

Verb

quit

1. first-person singular present indicative of quidier