quit 1 of 2

1
as in to leave
to give up (a job or office) he decided to quit his job at the fast-food restaurant

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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5
as in to succumb
to cease resistance (as to another's arguments, demands, or control) tried to persuade his daughter to remain at home, but eventually he just quit and let her go out on her own

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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7
as in to pay
to give what is owed for eager to quit all debts before starting married life

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quit

2 of 2

adjective

as in free
no longer burdened with something unpleasant or painful I am finally quit of that terrible task

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Synonym Chooser

How is the word quit distinct from other similar verbs?

Some common synonyms of quit are cease, desist, discontinue, and stop. While all these words mean "to suspend or cause to suspend activity," quit may stress either finality or abruptness in stopping or ceasing.

the engine faltered, sputtered, then quit altogether

When is it sensible to use cease instead of quit?

The words cease and quit are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, cease applies to states, conditions, or existence and may add a suggestion of gradualness and a degree of finality.

by nightfall the fighting had ceased

When is desist a more appropriate choice than quit?

While the synonyms desist and quit are close in meaning, desist implies forbearance or restraint as a motive for stopping or ceasing.

desisted from further efforts to persuade them

When would discontinue be a good substitute for quit?

While in some cases nearly identical to quit, discontinue applies to the stopping of an accustomed activity or practice.

we have discontinued the manufacture of that item

When could stop be used to replace quit?

In some situations, the words stop and quit are roughly equivalent. However, stop applies to action or progress or to what is operating or progressing and may imply suddenness or definiteness.

stopped at the red light

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of quit
Verb
In fact, early on in her time at NXT, Ripley almost quit WWE altogether. Nicholas Creel, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Apr. 2025 There was more change late in the season when assistant general manager Wes Wilcox quit to become general manager of the University of Utah men’s basketball team and assistant coach Luke Loucks left to become head coach at Florida State. Jason Anderson, Sacbee.com, 17 Apr. 2025 Rebecca Smiley quit her job as a college admissions counselor to become a travel agent. Jennifer Liu, CNBC, 17 Apr. 2025 Among the factors: ESOPs outperform non-ESOPs in job retention, pay, and workplace health safety and lower voluntary worker quit rates. Mary Josephs, Forbes.com, 9 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for quit
Recent Examples of Synonyms for quit
Verb
  • Prosecutors accused Read of striking O’Keefe with her SUV then leaving him to die in the snow.
    Karissa Waddick, USA Today, 25 Apr. 2025
  • Along the way, they are disappointed to learn that Miami Beach has strict rules for spring breakers and plans to enforce those rules, leaving them disappointed.
    Peter D'Abrosca, FOXNews.com, 24 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • At this point, what started as a throwaway joke has grown into something vaguely earnest — too big to fail and too enmeshed in the neighborhood to be abandoned in good conscience.
    Nate Rogers, Los Angeles Times, 23 Apr. 2025
  • Biden’s Justice Department ultimately abandoned the gambit and left Trump to head to trial, where a jury ordered him to pay $83.3 million.
    Zach Schonfeld, The Hill, 23 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • The confrontation stopped and restarted as the man appeared to try to get the knife away from Perez over the fence.
    Phaedra Trethan, USA Today, 19 Apr. 2025
  • When the American money stopped flowing, the local soup kitchen closed and Ms. Musa went out searching for food.
    Declan Walsh, New York Times, 19 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • Day 3, morning: A nation on edge, a family at ease The Sanders family never succumbed to negativity in the public throughout the historic slide and cruel prank.
    Jackson Thompson, FOXNews.com, 27 Apr. 2025
  • Firefighter Hoffman, succumbed to his injuries in the intensive care unit.
    ABC News, ABC News, 27 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • Without these little guys and their fellow pollinators, our gardens would be devoid of fruit, our flowers would not spread, and many species that rely on them would cease to exist.
    Katie Akin, Southern Living, 26 Apr. 2025
  • That shouldn’t be a surprise because the Packers would rather cease to exist as a franchise than draft an offensive lineman who can’t play at least three.
    Matt Schneidman, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • In 2020, the Trump administration paid to restore a Columbus statue in Baltimore that was dumped in the harbor during protests against the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
    CBS News, CBS News, 27 Apr. 2025
  • Pope Francis' tomb opens to visitors at Rome's St. Mary Major Basilica The tomb of Pope Francis was opened to visitors at St. Mary Major Basilica, where Catholic faithful lined up to pay their respects a day after world leaders and hundreds of thousands attended the late pontiff's funeral.
    Danielle Wallace, FOXNews.com, 27 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • Pereira knows that Wolves will lose players in the summer, with Cunha and Ait-Nouri two saleable assets likely to depart, while other more peripheral players will inevitably move on.
    Steve Madeley, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2025
  • Boos rained down from the home crowd as Romano departed the mound.
    Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 20 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • And the Trump administration is behaving the same terroristic way as Pinochet and others have done in the hemisphere.
    Nicholas Creel, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Apr. 2025
  • Model performance can drift, degrade or behave unpredictably with unseen inputs.
    Dan Rogers, Forbes.com, 18 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Quit.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quit. Accessed 30 Apr. 2025.

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