quit

/kwɪt/

quit adjective: released from obligation, penalty, etc; free, clear, or rid.

Adjective

quit (not comparable)

(usually) Released from obligation, penalty, etc; free, clear, or rid.
- With mounting anger the King denounced the pair, both father and son, and was about to condemn them to death when his strength gave out. Faint and trembling he was unable to walk and the sword fell from his hands as he murmured: 'May the Protector of the Buddhist Faith grant me but seven more days...1990, Claude de Bèze, translated by E. W. Hutchinson, 1688 revolution in Siam: the memoir of Father de Bèze, s.j, University Press, page 153

Verb

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

(transitive) To leave (a place).
- The British quit India in the 1940s.
- Jones had no sooner quitted the room, than the petty-fogger, in a whispering tone, asked Mrs Whitefield, “If she knew who that fine spark was?”1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC
(transitive) To set at rest; to free, as from anything harmful or oppressive; to relieve; to clear; to liberate.
- To quit you […] of this fear, […]you have already lookt Death in the face; what have you found so terrible in it?1688, William Wake, Preparation for Death
(transitive) To release from obligation, accusation, penalty, etc.; to absolve; to acquit.
- God will relent, and quit thee all his debt;1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 36, line 510
(transitive) To abandon, renounce (a thing).
(ambitransitive) To resign from (a job, office, position, etc.).
- After having to work overtime without being paid, I quit my job.
(ambitransitive) To stop, give up (an activity).
- John is planning to quit smoking.
(transitive) To close (an application).
(archaic, transitive) To pay (a debt, fine etc.).
- Edmund, enkindle all the sparkes of Nature
  To quit this horrid acte.1605, William Shakespeare, (Please provide the book title or journal name)
- that judge that quits each soul his hire1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield...
(archaic, reflexive) To conduct or acquit (oneself); to behave (in a specified way).
- Be strong and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 4:9
- Samſon hath quit himſelf
  Like Samſon,1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 98, lines...
(archaic, transitive) To carry through; to go through to the end.
- Never worthy prince a day did quit
  With greater hazard and with more renown.1595–1609, Samuel Daniel, Civil Wars
(obsolete, transitive) To repay, pay back (a good deed, injury etc.).
- Vnthankfull wretch (said he) is this the meed,
  With which her soueraigne mercy thou doest quight?1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- Forgive me, Rogero: 'tis my fate
  To love thy friend and quit thy love with hate.1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, III.2
(obsolete, transitive) To repay (someone) for (something).
- I was but late att a Iustynge
  and there I Iusted with a knyghte that is broder vnto kynge Pellam
  and twyes smote I hym doune
  & thenne he promysed to quyte me on my best frynde
  and so he wounded my sone that can not be hole tyll I haue of that knyghtes blood1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XIV, in Le Morte Darthur, book II
- 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:[…]1515–c. 1516, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c., published 1568

Noun

quit (plural quits)

Any of numerous species of small passerine birds native to tropical America.

quit meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

quit in Tamil

நிறுத்து, வெளியேறு, கைவிடு, விலகு, விடுவிக்கப்பட்ட

quit in Marathi

to leave: सोडून जाणे soḍūn jāṇe
to give up, stop doing something: सोडणे soḍṇe

quit in Urdu

to leave: چھوڑنا choṛnā

More languagesFewer languages

quit in Bengali: ছাড়া chaṛa
quit in Telugu: వదలివెళ్ళు vadaliveḷḷu, వదలిపెట్టు vadalipeṭṭu, వదులుకొను vadulukonu
quit in Malayalam: ഉപേക്ഷിക്കുക upēkṣikkuka
quit in Kannada: ಬಿಡು biḍu
quit in Sanskrit: उज्झति ujjhati
quit in Arabic: تَخَلَّى عَن taḵallā ʕan, تَوَقَّفَ tawaqqafa, حَبَسَ ḥabasa
quit in Thai: ออก ɔ̀ɔk, ลาออก laa-ɔ̀ɔk, เลิก lə̂ək
quit in Vietnamese: từ chức, bỏ việc, thôi việc, bỏ

Examples of quit in a sentence

He quitted the lake on the 23rd of September, and on the 4th of October arrived at Queenstown, on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, having succeded in finding a transitable route.1865, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, page 33:
... to cause the tenants to quit and give the plaintiff possession of the cottages, &c., ...1865, Great Britain. Courts, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the English Courts of Common Law: With Tables of the Cases and...
The lions, if they left not the forest, would capture no prey; and the arrow, if it quitted not the bow, would not strike the mark.1912, Edward Stanley Poole, transl., The Thousand and One Nights:

All 40 example sentences with quit

Synonyms of quit

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of quit

Forms of quit

Adjective
alternative form	quight
Verb
third-person singular present	quits
present participle	quitting
past participle	quit
past	quit
past participle	quitted
past	quitted
second-person singular present (archaic)	quittest
second-person singular past (archaic)	quittedst
third-person singular present (archaic)	quitteth
Noun
plural	quits

Past tense of quit: quit or quitted

Origin of quit

From Middle English quiten, quyten, from Anglo-Norman quitter, Old French quitter, from quitte (“acquitted, quit”), ultimately from Latin quietus, which itself derives from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyéh₁-ti-s, from *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest”). Doublet of coy, quite, quiet, and 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.

Probably of imitative origin.

Words formed from quit

Phrases with quit

Words that rhyme with quit

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about quit

What does quit mean?: Quit means released from obligation, penalty, etc; free, clear, or rid.
What is quit in Hindi?: Quit in Hindi is छोड़ना (choṛnā). See Quit meaning in Hindi.
How do you use quit in a sentence?: He quitted the lake on the 23rd of September, and on the 4th of October arrived at Queenstown, on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, having succeded in finding a transitable route.
What part of speech is quit?: Quit can be an adjective, a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce quit?: Quit is pronounced /kwɪt/.

Words near quit in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: quit (page history and authors); quit (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ছাড়া (Bengali) (page history and authors); ഉപേക്ഷിക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಬಿಡು (Kannada) (page history and authors); उज्झति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-quit.ogg.

Cite this entry: “quit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/quit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.