Quit vs Avoid - What's the difference?
quit | avoid |
To pay (a debt, fine etc.).
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:Enkindle all the sparks of nature / To quit this horrid act.
*(Edward Fairfax) (c.1580-1635)
*:that judge that quits each soul his hire
To repay (someone) for (something).
*:
*:I was but late att a Iustynge / and there I Iusted with a knyghte that is broder vnto kynge Pellam / and twyes smote I hym doune / & thenne he promysed to quyte me on my best frynde / and so he wounded my sone that can not be hole tyll I haue of that knyghtes blood
(obsolete) To repay, pay back (a good deed, injury etc.).
*1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.v:
*:Vnthankfull wretch (said he) is this the meed, / With which her soueraigne mercy thou doest quight ?
To conduct or acquit (oneself); to behave (in a specified way).
*
*:Be strong and quit' yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: ' quit yourselves like men, and fight.
*(John Milton) (1608-1674)
*:Samson hath quit himself like Samson.
To carry through; to go through to the end.
*(Samuel Daniel) (1562-1619)
*:Never worthy prince a day did quit / With greater hazard and with more renown.
(label) To set at rest; to free, as from anything harmful or oppressive; to relieve; to clear; to liberate.
*(William Wake) (1657-1737)
*:To quit you of this fear, you have already looked Death in the face; what have you found so terrible in it?
(label) To release from obligation, accusation, penalty, etc.; to absolve; to acquit.
*(John Milton) (1608-1674)
*:God will relent, and quit thee all his debt.
(label) To abandon, renounce (a thing).
(label) To leave (a place).
To resign from (a job, office, position, etc.).
:
To stop, give up (an activity) (usually + gerund or verbal noun).
:
To close (an application).
(quit)
To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.
:I try to avoid the company of gamblers.
*1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 4:
*:The devyllsayde unto hym: all these will I geve the, iff thou wilt faull doune and worship me. Then sayde Jesus unto hym. Avoyde Satan.
*Milton
*:What need a man forestall his date of grief, / And run to meet what he would most avoid ?
*Macaulay
*:He carefully avoided every act which could goad them into open hostility.
*{{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 19, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
, title= (obsolete) To make empty; to clear.
:(Wyclif)
To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).
*Spenser
*:How can these grants of the king's be avoided ?
(legal) To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter.
:(Blackstone)
(obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions.
:(Sir Thomas Browne)
(obsolete) To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.
*:
*:Anone they encountred to gyders / and he with the reed shelde smote hym soo hard that he bare hym ouer to the erthe / There with anone came another Knyght of the castel / and he was smyten so sore that he auoyded his fadel
*Francis Bacon
*:Six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the room.
(obsolete) To get rid of.
:(Shakespeare)
(obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.
(obsolete) To become void or vacant.
In transitive obsolete terms the difference between quit and avoid
is that quit is to repay, pay back (a good deed, injury etc.) while avoid is to get rid of.In transitive terms the difference between quit and avoid
is that quit is to leave (a place) while avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.As verbs the difference between quit and avoid
is that quit is to pay (a debt, fine etc.) while avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.As a noun quit
is any of numerous species of small passerine birds native to tropical America.quit
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) quiter, (etyl) quiter, from , ultimately from (etyl) quietus .Verb
Derived terms
* quitterQuotations
* (English Citations of "quit")Usage notes
* The past tense of quit'' is now ''quit'' for most speakers and writers; dictionaries usually allow ''quitted'' as an alternative, but it is rare or nonexistent in North America and Australia, and outnumbered by ''quit'' by about 16 to 1 in theBritish National Corpus. Quitted is more commonly used to mean "left". ''ie. She quitted her job.
References
Pam Peters, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage , Cambridge University Press, p. 453.Etymology 2
Derived terms
* bananaquitavoid
English
Verb
England 1-0 Ukraine, passage=England could have met world and European champions Spain but that eventuality was avoided by Sweden's 2-0 win against France, and Rooney's first goal in a major tournament since scoring twice in the 4-2 victory over Croatia in Lisbon at Euro 2004.}}
