quitter

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɪ.tə/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtə(ɹ)
• Homophone: quittor

From Middle English quitter, from Anglo-Norman quiture, quyture et al., specialised use of quiture (“burn mark, burning”), from the participle stem of cuire (“to cook”), or from Latin coctura (“cooking”).

• quittor (obsolete except farriery)
• quitture (obsolete)

quitter (uncountable)

1. (now rare outside Jamaica) Matter flowing from a wound or sore; pus.
   • 1395, John Wycliffe, Bible, Job II:

     Therfor Sathan [...] smoot Joob with a ful wickid botche fro the sole of the foot til to his top; which Joob schauyde the quytere with a schelle, and sat in the dunghil.

2. (farriery) Alternative spelling of quittor (“fistulous wound at the top of a horse's foot”)
3. (obsolete) Scoria of tin.

quitter (third-person singular simple present quitters, present participle quittering, simple past and past participle quittered)

1. To suppurate; ooze with pus.

From quit +‎ -er.

quitter (plural quitters)

1. One who quits.

   Winners never quit and quitters never win.

   • 1974 August 8, Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon's resignation speech‎, CBSN, 2:00 from the start:

     I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as president, I must put the interests of America first.

   • 2001, Peter Mandelson, 2001 victory speech‎, ITV, 4:14 from the start:

     Well, they underestimated Hartlepool, and they underestimated me because I am a fighter and not a quitter!

2. (obsolete) A deliverer.

• spitters are quitters

From quitte +‎ -er, or from Late Latin quietare (“acquit, discharge, release”), from Latin quiētāre, present active infinitive of quiētō (“to calm”).

• IPA^(key): /ki.te/

• audio

  (file)

quitter

1. (transitive, law or obsolete) to discharge somebody from an obligation
2. (transitive, of a place) to leave, to quit
3. (transitive, of a person) to part with somebody, to leave somebody

• ne pas quitter d'une semelle
• ne pas quitter des yeux
• quittance
• quitter le navire

• acquitter

• “quitter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Old French quitter.

quitter

1. to release from an obligation; to forgive (a debt)
2. to liberate; to free
3. to pardon
4. to leave

• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

• French: quitter

• quitter on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)
• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (quitter, supplement)

From Medieval Latin quiētus (“at rest”).

quitter

1. to liberate; to free

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-tt, *-tts, *-ttt are modified to t, z, t. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

• → English: quit
• French: quitter

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (quitter, supplement)
• quitter on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.