The Collaborative International Dictionary
Quit \Quit\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Quit or Quitted; p. pr. & vb. n. Quitting.] [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.]
-
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. -
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. -
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. -
To meet the claims upon, or expectations entertained of; to conduct; to acquit; -- used reflexively.
Be strong, and quit yourselves like men.
--1 Sam. iv. 9.Samson hath quit himself Like Samson.
--Milton. -
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. -
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.To quit cost, to pay; to reimburse.
To quit scores, to make even; to clear mutually from demands.
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.
Usage: 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.
Wiktionary
vb. (en-past of: quit)
WordNet
v. put an end to a state or an activity; "Quit teasing your little brother" [syn: discontinue, stop, cease, give up, lay off] [ant: continue]
give up or retire from a position; "The Secretary fo the Navy will leave office next month"; "The chairman resigned over the financial scandal" [syn: leave office, step down, resign] [ant: take office]
go away or leave [syn: depart, take leave] [ant: stay]
turn away from; give up; "I am foreswearing women forever" [syn: foreswear, renounce, relinquish]
give up in the face of defeat of lacking hope; admit defeat; "In the second round, the challenger gave up" [syn: drop out, give up, fall by the wayside, drop by the wayside, throw in, throw in the towel, chuck up the sponge] [ant: enter]
See quit
Usage examples of "quitted".
The next day, the 16th of February, we left the basin which, between Rhodes and Alexandria, is reckoned about 1,500 fathoms in depth, and the Nautilus, passing some distance from Cerigo, quitted the Grecian Archipelago after having doubled Cape Matapan.
Her speed increased gradually, and, sailing on the surface of the ocean, she quitted safe and sound the dangerous passes of the Straits of Torres.
The pink room was half the size of the green they had quitted, but still an impressive thirty by thirty.
Laying each piece neatly atop the previous across the back of the chair he had just quitted, he began to remove his clothing with a sense of unreality, but too much of that had recently occurred in his life to sustain the feeling.
She came into the arms that Amy and Phyllis had quitted, pressed against him and kissed him deeply.
I imagined that I should not have much difficulty in sending her back to Venice, which she might never have quitted if it had not been for her trust in me, founded on the fallacious promises of her seducer.
Just as we were on the point of descending we heard a deep-toned roar burst from the Temple of Issus, which we had but just quitted, and then a red man, Djor Kantos, padwar of the fifth utan, broke from a nearby gate, crying to us to return.
It was with a sigh of relief that I quitted the chamber, convinced that nothing more than a guilty conscience had prompted my belief that either of my enemies suspected my true identity.
We, therefore, approached Kadabra at a point several miles from that at which the party had quitted it in the morning, and so were relieved of the danger of embarrassing questions and explanations on the part of the gate captain, whom we had said had directed us to this particular hunting party.
As it was this interval upon which we had banked to accomplish so much in our search for Dejah Thoris and Thuvia of Ptarth, our chagrin was unbounded when we heard the great lock click behind our guide as he had quitted us after ushering us into the chambers we were to occupy.
Cyrus Harding, Herbert, Pencroft, Gideon Spilett, and Neb quitted the encampment.
If castaways had landed on the island, they could not have yet quitted the shore, and it was not in the woods that the survivors of the supposed shipwreck should be sought.
The convicts, still watching for a favorable opportunity, rarely quitted their retreat, and only made a few hunting excursions, either to the interior of the island, or the south coast.
The second squadron that had been in the front line followed them across and the last Cossacks quitted the farther side of the river.
Those who had quitted Moscow already in July and at the beginning of August showed that they expected this.