QUIT, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive quit or quitted. [Latin cedo. The sense of quit is to leave, to withdraw from; but the primary sense of the root must have been to move or to send; for to requite is to send back.]

1. To leave; to depart from, either temporarily or forever. It does not necessarily include the idea of abandoning, without a qualifying word. A man quits his house for an hour, or for a month. He quits his native country on a voyage or he quits it forever; he quits an employment with the intention of resuming it.

2. To free; to clear; to liberate; to discharge from.

To quit you of this fear, you have already looked death in the face. [Nearly obsolete.]

3. To carry through; to do or perform something to the end, so that nothing remains; to discharge or perform completely.

Never a worthy prince a day did quit with greater hazard and with more renown.

4. To quit one's self, reciprocally, to clear one's self of incumbent duties by full performance.

Samson hath quit himself like Samson.

In this sense, acquit is generally used.

5. To repay; to requite.

- Enkindle all the sparks of nature to quit this horrid act.

In this sense, quit is now rarely used. We use requite.

6. To vacate obligation; to release; to free from

Dangers of law, actions, decrees, judgments against us quitted.

7. To pay; to discharge; hence, to free from; as, to quit the debt of gratitude.

8. To set free; to release; to absolve; to acquit.

Guiltless I quit guilty I set them free. In this sense, acquit is now used.

9. To leave; to give up; to resign; to relinquish; as, to quit an office.

10. To pay.

Before that judge that quits each soul his hire. [Not used.]

11. To forsake; to abandon.

Such a superficial way of examining is to quit truth for appearance.

To quit cost, to pay; to free from by an equivalent; to reimburse; as, the cultivation of barren land will not always quit cost.

To quit scores, to make even; to clear mutually from demands by mutual equivalents given. We will quit scores [marks of charges] before we part.

Does not the earth quit scores with all the elements in her noble fruits?

QUIT, adjective Free; clear; discharged from; absolved.

The owner of the ox shall be quit Exodus 21:19. [This word, though primarily a participle, and never placed before its noun, has properly the sense of an adjective.]

Qui tam, [Latin] A qui tam action, in law, is a popular action, in which a man prosecutes an offender for the king or state, as well as for himself.