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

2
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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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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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
And as a result, these workers are twice as likely to consider quitting their jobs, the report finds. Brit Morse, Fortune, 9 July 2025 But Williams said even if non-FDA authorized products disappear from the market, there are some that have gained authorization that would still be available to people who want to use them to quit cigarettes. Madeline Heim, jsonline.com, 9 July 2025 In April alone, 3.2 million Americans quit their jobs. Julia Korn, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025 To say the quiet part out loud: many athletes have previously felt that choosing to have a child meant having to quit. L'oréal Blackett, Refinery29, 30 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for quit
Recent Examples of Synonyms for quit
Verb
  • Cut lemons tend to lose their moisture quickly, especially if left exposed to air in the fridge.
    Katie Rosenhouse, Southern Living, 15 July 2025
  • The serum leaves your scalp nourished and your hair frizz-free and shiny after each use.
    Kiana Murden, Vogue, 15 July 2025
Verb
  • That doesn't mean abandoning your message, just finding the right entry point for your audience in that moment.
    Rachel Weissman, Forbes.com, 15 July 2025
  • Nothing in the proposal Trump announced on Monday is likely to force Putin to abandon that objective.
    Simon Shuster, Time, 15 July 2025
Verb
  • The toddler stopped crying about 15 minutes after she had been put down for a nap.
    Karen Kucher, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 July 2025
  • Such as when our yellow Lab Frank couldn’t stop wagging his tail while digging a hole.
    David McGrath, Chicago Tribune, 11 July 2025
Verb
  • In a moment that is almost cliché, the lawyer is the first to succumb to the terror of the T-Rex.
    Blake D. Morant, Forbes.com, 8 July 2025
  • Some leaders recently have succumbed to such efforts and paid the piper, while others have resisted.
    Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Time, 7 July 2025
Verb
  • When the questioning ceased, committee Chair Rep. Doug Miller R-Elkhart, thanked the fruitful advocates for their time.
    Anna Cecil, IndyStar, 2 July 2025
  • Trump signed an order May 2 directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease funding NPR and PBS.
    Sara Dorn, Forbes.com, 2 July 2025
Verb
  • A lot of users paid to have their dresses professionally preserved.
    Hannah Pittard, People.com, 8 July 2025
  • And pay special attention to those easy-to-wear Madewell barrel jeans, which are truly beloved among Glamour editors.
    Jake Henry Smith, Glamour, 8 July 2025
Verb
  • The team departed from Alexandria to the airport soon after what became its final match of the tournament.
    Lee Igel, Forbes.com, 14 July 2025
  • According to flight tracker Flightradar24, the plane departed at 2:36 p.m. and returned to the ground at 3:22 p.m.
    Colson Thayer, People.com, 14 July 2025
Verb
  • Now, another Russian satellite is behaving in the same way, with a mothership opening up to release a smaller object that could in turn reveal its own surprise inside like a Matryoshka nesting doll.
    Robert Pearlman, ArsTechnica, 11 July 2025
  • Because Ireland is an Anglophone country with large diasporas located in the United Kingdom and the United States, it is assumed that politics should behave a little bit like the two nations who pump so much influence back into it through the mass media produced in London, New York, and Hollywood.
    Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 11 July 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Quit.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quit. Accessed 22 Jul. 2025.

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