quit Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb put an end to a state or an activity
    discontinue; lay off; stop; give up; cease.
    • Quit teasing your little brother
  2. verb give up or retire from a position
    step down; leave office; resign.
    • The Secretary of the Navy will leave office next month
    • The chairman resigned over the financial scandal
  3. verb go away or leave
    take leave; depart.
  4. verb turn away from; give up
    relinquish; foreswear; renounce.
    • I am foreswearing women forever
  5. verb give up in the face of defeat of lacking hope; admit defeat
    throw in; drop out; throw in the towel; chuck up the sponge; fall by the wayside; give up; drop by the wayside.
    • In the second round, the challenger gave up

WordNet

Quit noun
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of small passerine birds native of tropical America. See Banana quit, under Banana, and Guitguit.
Quit adjective
Etymology
OE. quite, OF. quite, F. quitte. See Quit, v., Quirt.
Definitions
  1. Released from obligation, charge, penalty, etc.; free; clear; absolved; acquitted. Chaucer.
    The owner of the ox shall be quit. Ex. xxi. 28.
    ✍ This word is sometimes used in the form quits, colloquially; as, to be quits with one, that is, to have made mutual satisfaction of demands with him; to be even with him; hence, as an exclamation: Quits! we are even, or on equal terms. "To cry quits with the commons in their complaints." Fuller.
Quit transitive verb
Etymology
OE. quiten, OF. quiter, quitier, cuitier, F. quitter, to acquit, quit, LL. quietare, fr. L. quietare to calm, to quiet, fr. quietus quiet. See Quiet, a., and cf. Quit, a., Quite, Acquit, Requite.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Quit or Quitted; present participle & verbal noun Quitting
Definitions
  1. To set at rest; to free, as from anything harmful or oppressive; to relieve; to clear; to liberate. R.
    To quit you of this fear, you have already looked Death in the face; what have you found so terrible in it? Wake.
  2. To release from obligation, accusation, penalty, or the like; to absolve; to acquit.
    There may no gold them quyte. Chaucer.
    God will relent, and quit thee all his debt. Milton.
  3. To discharge, as an obligation or duty; to meet and satisfy, as a claim or debt; to make payment for or of; to requite; to repay.
    The blissful martyr quyte you your meed. Chaucer.
    Enkindle all the sparks of nature To quit this horrid act. Shak.
    Before that judge that quits each soul his hire. Fairfax.
  4. To meet the claims upon, or expectations entertained of; to conduct; to acquit; -- used reflexively.
    Be strong, and quit yourselves like men. I Sam. iv. 9.
    Samson hath guit himself Like Samson. Milton.
  5. To carry through; to go through to the end. Obs.
    Never worthy prince a day did quit With greater hazard and with more renown. Daniel.
  6. To have done with; to cease from; to stop; hence, to depart from; to leave; to forsake; as, to quit work; to quit the place; to quit jesting.
    Such a superficial way of examining is to quit truth for appearance. Locke.
    Does not the earth quit scores with all the elements in the noble fruits that issue from it? South.
    Syn. -- To leave; relinquish; resign; abandon; forsake; surrender; discharge; requite. -- Quit, Leave. Leave is a general term, signifying merely an act of departure; quit implies a going without intention of return, a final and absolute abandonment.
Quit intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To away; to depart; to stop doing a thing; to cease.

Webster 1913