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Quit

.

Discharged from an obligation, “acquitted.”

“To John I owed great obligation;

But John unhappily thought fit

To publish it to all the nation—

Now I and John are fairly quit.”


Prior.

Cry quits. When two boys quarrel, and one has had enough, he says, “Cry quits,” meaning, “Let us leave off, and call it a drawn game.” So in an unequal distribution, he who has the largest share restores a portion and “cries quits,” meaning that he has made the distribution equal. Here quit means “acquittal” or discharge.

Double or quits. In gambling, especially in a small way, one of the players says to the other, “Double or quits?”—that is, the next stake shall be double the present one, or the winnings shall be returned to the loser, in which case both players would leave off as they began.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Quinbus Flestrin
Quince (Peter)
Quinones (Suero de)
Quinquagesima Sunday (Latin, fiftieth)
Quinsy
Quintessence
Quintilians
Quip Modest (The)
Quis custodiet Custodes?
Quisquiliæ
Quit
Quit Rent
Quixada (Gutierre)
Quixote (Don)
Quixote of the North
Quixotic
Quiz
Quo Warranto
Quod
Quodling (The Rev. Mr.)
Quondam (Latin)