Meaning & use
quit
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To leave a job, school or group by your own choice.
Grammar: Can take an object (quit the team) or stand alone (she quit last week).
Patterns
- quit something
- quit as something
- quit and do something
She quit her job at the bank to start a bakery.
After three weeks he quit the band.
I'm not going to quit now, so close to the finish.
verbtransitive
To stop doing something, especially a habit or an activity.
Grammar: Followed by an -ing form, not an infinitive: quit smoking.
Patterns
- quit doing something
- quit something
He quit smoking five years ago.
Please quit tapping your pen; it is distracting.
The kids quit arguing as soon as dinner arrived.
verbtransitive or intransitivecomputing
To close a program or application on a computer or phone.
Grammar: Often used with an app name, or alone: quit the app.
Patterns
- quit an application
Remember to quit the program before you restart the laptop.
The game quit unexpectedly and I lost my progress.
Word forms
| third person singular | quits |
|---|---|
| past tense | quit |
| past participle | quit |
| -ing form | quitting |
Common combinations
- quit smoking
- My uncle finally quit smoking last winter.
- quit your job
- She quit her job without having another one lined up.
- threaten to quit
- The manager threatened to quit if the budget was cut.
- quit school
- He quit school at sixteen to work on a farm.
- quit while you're ahead
- We won two games, so let's quit while we're ahead.
- quit cold turkey
- He quit sugar cold turkey and felt awful for a week.
Synonyms and how they differ
- resign
- Resign is more formal and is used for leaving an official position, whereas quit can be abrupt and casual.
- give up
- Give up stresses surrendering after trying, while quit just means stopping or leaving.
- stop
- Stop is neutral and works for any action, while quit suggests a deliberate decision to end something.
- leave
- Leave is the neutral word for going away from a place or job, while quit implies the choice came from you.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: quit or quite? quit or quiet?
quit vs quite
Quite is an adverb meaning fairly or completely, while quit is a verb meaning to stop or leave.
quit vs quiet
Quiet means silent or calm, and is a different word altogether despite the similar spelling.
Practice
My doctor told me to ___ drinking so much coffee at night.
Choose one answer.
After told me to, the base form quit is needed and the verb is followed by an -ing form (drinking). To quit would repeat the to, and quitting or quits is the wrong form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “quit”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.