Rather vs Quit - What's the difference?
rather | quit |
(obsolete) More quickly; sooner, earlier.
Used to specify a choice or preference; preferably. (Now usually followed by than )
*
(conjunctive) Used to introduce a contradiction; on the contrary.
(conjunctive) Introducing a qualification or clarification; more precisely. (Now usually preceded by or .)
* 1897 , (Henry James), (What Maisie Knew) :
* 1898, J. A. Hamilton, ", Volume LIV: Stanhope–Stovin , The MacMillan Company,
* , chapter=12
, title= (degree) Somewhat, fairly.
(nonstandard, or, dialectal) To prefer; to prefer to.
* 1984 , Bruce Brooks, The Moves Make the Man :
* 2002 , Sarah Waters, Fingersmith :
* 2002 , Elizabeth Bowen, The Heat of the Day :
* 2007 , Mikel Schaefer, Lost in Katrina , page 323:
(obsolete) Prior; earlier; former.
* Sir J. Mandeville
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)
As verbs the difference between rather and quit
is that rather is to prefer; to prefer to while quit is to pay (a debt, fine etc.).As an adverb rather
is more quickly; sooner, earlier.As an adjective rather
is prior; earlier; former.As a noun quit is
any of numerous species of small passerine birds native to tropical America.rather
English
Adverb
(-)- Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants.
- What the pupil already knew was indeed rather taken for granted than expressed, but it performed the useful function of transcending all textbooks and supplanting all studies.
page 60,
- His ‘Iliad’ is spirited and polished, and, though often rather a paraphrase than a translation, is always more truly poetic than most of the best translations.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill.
Usage notes
* (somewhat) This is a non-descriptive qualifier'', similar to quite and fairly and somewhat. It is used where a plain adjective needs to be modified, but cannot be qualified. When spoken, the meaning can vary with the tone of voice and stress. "''He was rather big''" can mean anything from "not small" to "huge" (meiosis with the stress on ''rather ).Synonyms
* liever, liefer, as lief * (to a certain extent) somewhat, fairly, quiteAntonyms
* (somewhat) utterlyVerb
(en verb)- Until just before the pie was popped into the heat. A few of them suddenly realized who put that gorgeous hunk of crackers together, and gaped. We grinned back, but very cool. The ones who knew said nothing, rathering to die than let on they had been hustled by two negative dudes.
- It was a plain brown dress, more or less the colour of my hair; and the walls of our kitchen being also brown, when I came downstairs again I could hardly be seen. I should have rathered a blue gown, or a violet one
- So you must excuse my saying anything I did: all it was, that up to the very last I had understood us all to be friendly — apart, that is, from his rathering me not there. How was I to know he would flash out so wicked?
- "That was a killer," said Chris. "I'd rathered' die in St. Bernard than spent one minute over there. I would have ' rathered the storm, shaking with the wind and rain hitting in the boat for an eternity than spending any time there.
Adjective
(-)- Now no man dwelleth at the rather town.
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.
