Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"without preparation," 1910; narrower sense of "withdrawal from an addictive substance" (originally heroin) first recorded 1921. Cold turkey is a food that requires little preparation, so "to quit like cold turkey" is to do so suddenly and without preparation. Compare cold shoulder.
Wiktionary
adv. (context idiomatic English) Not gradually; all at once. Refers especially to quitting a habit by force of will rather than by a gradual reduction. n. 1 The sudden and complete withdrawal of a dependent substance, especially of a drug 2 The physiological effects of such a withdrawal
WordNet
n. a blunt expression of views; "I told him cold turkey"
complete and abrupt withdrawal of all addictive drugs or anything else on which you have become dependent; "he quit smoking cold turkey"; "she quit her job cold turkey"
Wikipedia
"Cold Turkey" is a song written by John Lennon, released as a single in 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, catalogue Apples 1001 in the United Kingdom, Apple 1813 in the United States. It is the second solo single issued by Lennon, and it peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 14 on the UK Singles Chart. The song's first appearance on an album was the 1975 compilation Shaved Fish.
Going cold turkey means withdrawing from a habit or addiction abruptly.
Cold turkey may also refer to:
Cold Turkey is a 1971 satirical comedy film. It stars Dick Van Dyke plus a long list of comedic actors. The film was directed, co-produced and co-written by Norman Lear and is based on the unpublished novel I'm Giving Them Up for Good by Margaret and Neil Rau.
The film was made in 1969, but was shelved for two years by the distributor due to concerns about its box-office potential.
A musical theatre version of Cold Turkey was workshopped at the Village Theatre in Issaquah, Washington in February 2005.
Usage examples of "cold turkey".
I've tried to quit cold turkey, but the longest I've managed to go was about six hours.
Probably Naiad, a sophisticated derivative of street-syntho, guaranteed no bad trips, no cold turkey.
If there had not been those heavy clouds in the distance and that rain to worry me about the river bed, we would have walked into the ambush and they would have had us cold turkey.
Ginny and I were eating fruit and a slice of cold turkey and Harriet and Mr.