go cold turkey

cold turkey

noun Informal.
1.
abrupt and complete withdrawal from the use of an addictive substance, as a narcotic drug, alcohol, or tobacco.
Idioms
2.
go cold turkey,
a.
to stop using an addictive substance abruptly and completely.
b.
to undergo sudden and complete withdrawal from a habitual activity or behavior pattern.
c.
to begin or do something without planning, preparation, or practice.
Origin:
1915–20, Americanism; probably from the phrase to talk cold turkey to speak bluntly about something unpleasant, variant of to talk turkey; see turkey

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
cold turkey
 
—n
1.  slang a method of curing drug addiction by abrupt withdrawal of all doses
2.  the withdrawal symptoms, esp nausea and shivering, brought on by this method

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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00:10
Go cold turkey is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

cold turkey
"without preparation," 1910; narrower sense of "withdrawal from an addictive substance" (originally heroin) first recorded 1921. Cold turkey is a food that requires little preparation, so "to quit like cold turkey" is to do so suddenly and without preparation.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary

cold turkey definition


To “go cold turkey” is to withdraw suddenly and completely from an addictive substance or some other form of dependency: “Many people who attempt to quit smoking do so by going cold turkey rather than by gradually cutting down.”

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary

cold turkey definition


  1. mod.
    [stopping something] suddenly, without tapering off. (Said especially of stopping an addictive drug intake. Originally drugs.) : Martha stopped cold turkey and survived.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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