quit

quit — verb

1. To decide that you will no longer take part in an activity, hold a job, or conti

1.verbtransitive / intransitiveB1
Definition

To decide that you will no longer take part in an activity, hold a job, or continue a habit you used to have.

Example

Apinya quit her job at the pharmacy after ten years and started her own shop.

quit + noun (job / school / position)

After the doctor showed him the scan results, Zayd quit smoking the very next day.

quit + gerund (quit smoking / quit complaining)

Common collocations
  • quit + job
  • quit + school
  • quit + smoking / drinking / gambling
  • quit + cold turkey
  • quit + for good
Synonyms
  • resign

    Formal; used only for jobs or official positions, not for habits or activities.

  • give up

    More emotional than quit; emphasises effort or struggle that has ended.

  • stop

    The most neutral word; does not imply a decision or a regular activity — can be any type of cessation.

Antonyms
  • continue

    To keep doing something without interruption.

  • persist

    To keep trying despite difficulty; the opposite of giving up.

Grammar Patterns

quit + noun/pronoun

quit + gerund

quit (intransitive)

Usage Note

Frequently used with a gerund (quit + verb-ing) to talk about stopping a habit. The past tense is quit, not quitted — the form never changes.

Common Mistakes

I quitted my job last week.
I quit my job last week.
quit is an irregular verb; the past form is quit, not quitted.
I quit to smoke last year.
I quit smoking last year.
to talk about stopping a habit, use quit + gerund, not quit + infinitive.

2. To go away from a place where you have been living or staying, especially with t

2.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

To go away from a place where you have been living or staying, especially with the idea of not returning soon.

Example

Élise quit the village where she had been raised and never looked back.

The soldiers were ordered to quit the town before sunrise the following morning.

quit + place (formal register)

Common collocations
  • quit + city / town / village
  • quit + homeland / country / region
Synonyms
  • leave

    Neutral and much more common; works for any duration or reason.

  • depart

    Formal, often used in travel or schedules; focuses on the moment of going rather than the decision.

  • abandon

    Stronger; suggests leaving something behind that still needs care or attention.

Antonyms
  • stay

    To remain in a place rather than leave it.

  • remain

    Formal alternative to stay.

Grammar Patterns

quit + place

Usage Note

This sense is more formal or literary than sense 1. It typically names a location (city, country, home) as the object and suggests a permanent or long-term departure.

3. To walk away from someone or end your time with a group of people, often because

3.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

To walk away from someone or end your time with a group of people, often because you are frustrated or no longer wish to stay.

Example

After the heated argument, Wren quit the dinner table and went straight up to her room.

quit + person's company (social setting)

Andrés quit the committee after his proposal was rejected for the third time.

Common collocations
  • quit + the table
  • quit + the room
  • quit + the committee / group
Synonyms
  • leave

    Neutral; works for any social situation without implying frustration.

  • walk out on

    Informal and more dramatic; suggests abandoning someone in a difficult moment.

Antonyms
  • join

    To become a member of a group or to go where someone is.

  • stay with

    To remain in someone's company.

Grammar Patterns

quit + person

quit + group

Usage Note

Less common in everyday speech than sense 1. The object is usually a group, a gathering, or a social situation rather than an individual person.

quit — adjective

quit — noun

Word family

  • quitter
    nounB2
  • quits
    adjectiveC1
  • quitting
    nounB1
  • quitclaim
    noun
  • unquitting
    adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

Quit is the most general and informal of the five. You can quit a job, a habit, an activity, or a place — it covers any decision to stop. Resign is strictly for jobs or official positions: it implies a formal process and often a written letter. Leave is the most neutral and flexible: you can leave a job temporarily or permanently, and it carries no emotional weight. Abandon is stronger and more dramatic — it suggests walking away from something that still needs you or that you had a duty to maintain (abandon a project, abandon a pet). Give up is close to quit in meaning but focuses more on the effort or struggle involved: you give up after trying and failing. Use quit for everyday decisions about jobs and habits; use resign in formal professional contexts; use abandon only when the situation implies neglect or desertion.

quit ↗resign ↗leaveabandon ↗give up ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Quit comes from the Old French word quiter, meaning 'to set free, release, or let go.' That Old French word traces back to the Medieval Latin quietare, which meant 'to calm, to quiet, or to satisfy a debt,' and ultimately to the Latin adjective quietus ('calm, at rest'). The original idea in English was 'to free someone from an obligation or to settle a debt' — a meaning that survives today in the legal term quitclaim and the expression 'to be quits' (even with someone after settling a score). By the 14th century, quit had broadened to mean 'to leave' or 'to go away from,' and by the 1800s it had taken on its modern sense of stopping a job or a habit.