Emily Dickinson Lexicon

QUIT, v.t. [pret. and pp. quit or quitted. Fr. quitter; It. quitare and chitare; Port. and Sp. quitar; D. kwyten; G. quittiren; Dan. quitterer; Sw. quitta; W. gadu and gadaw, to quit; Ir. cead, leave; cuitighim, to requite. This is the L. 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. See Class Cd, and Cs.]

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.] – Wake.
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. – Daniel.
4. To quit one's self, reciprocally, to clear one's self of incumbent duties by full performance. Samson hath quit himself Like Samson. – Milton. In this sense, acquit is generally used.
5. To repay; to requite. – Spenser. Enkindle all the sparks of nature To quit this horrid act. – Shak. In this sense, quit is now rarely used. We use requite.
6. To vacate obligation; to release; to free from. Dangers of law, / Actions, degrees, judgments against us quitted. – B. Jonson.
7. To pay; to discharge; hence, to free from; as, to quit the debt of gratitude. – Milton.
8. To set free; to release; to absolve; to acquit. Guiltless I quit, guilty I set them free. – Fairfax. 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.] – Fairfax.
11. To forsake; to abandon. Such a superficial way of examining is to quit truth for appearance. – Locke. 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? – South.