go cold turkey

Inf. to stop (doing something) without tapering off. (Originally drug slang. Now concerned with breaking any habit.) I had to stop smoking, so I went cold turkey. It's awful! When heroin addicts go cold turkey, they get terribly sick.

go cold turkey

to suddenly and completely stop doing something, esp. a bad habit Finally she went cold turkey on a 23-year smoking habit and hasn't smoked since.

Usage notes: also used in the form quit cold turkey with the same meaning: The big organizations suddenly quit cold turkey, leaving the work to volunteers.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Andrea (2)	AN-dree-ə (English), an-DRAY-ə (English), ahn-DRE-ah (German)	English, German, Spanish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Dutch, Cr
Ayla (2)	-	Turkish
Nadia (1)	NAD-yə (English), NAHD-yə (English)	French, English, Italian, Russian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian
Kishore	-	Indian, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu
Etelvina	-	Spanish
Daveth	-	Cornish