"cold turkey" meaning in English

See cold turkey in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adverb

Audio: en-au-cold turkey.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: Various explanations; see Cold turkey § Etymology on Wikipedia. Head templates: {{en-adverb|-}} cold turkey (not comparable)
  1. (idiomatic) Not gradually; all at once. Refers especially to quitting a habit by force of will rather than by a gradual reduction. Tags: idiomatic, not-comparable Translations (abruptly): ineens (Dutch), kerralla (Finnish), seinään (Finnish), brutalement (French), d’un coup d’un seul (French), d’un seul coup (French), abrupt (German), hirtelen (Hungarian), di colpo (Italian), di punto in bianco (Italian), 突然に (totsuzenni) (Japanese), 一度に (ichidoni) (Japanese), ре́зко (rézko) (Russian), внеза́пно (vnezápno) (Russian), abrupt (Swedish), på en gång (Swedish), helt tvärt (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-cold_turkey-en-adv-cQthPNnQ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 55 7 5 33

Noun

Audio: en-au-cold turkey.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: Various explanations; see Cold turkey § Etymology on Wikipedia. Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} cold turkey (uncountable)
  1. Sudden and complete withdrawal from a dependent substance, especially a drug. Tags: uncountable Translations (sudden and complete withdrawal): kold tyrker (Danish), abrupte ontwenning (Dutch), kalter Entzug [masculine] (German), hirtelen abbahagyás/elhagyás/megvonás (Hungarian), tobstaonadh [masculine] (Irish), astinenza completa [feminine] (Italian), astinenza [feminine] (Italian)
    Sense id: en-cold_turkey-en-noun-GduerrWg Disambiguation of 'sudden and complete withdrawal': 68 30 2
  2. The physiological effects of such a withdrawal. Tags: uncountable Translations (symptoms of withdrawal): ontwenningsverschijnselen (Dutch), abstina sindromo (Esperanto), manque [masculine] (French), tobstaonadh [masculine] (Irish), crisi di astinenza [feminine] (Italian), crise de abstinência (Portuguese), abstinenssymtom (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-cold_turkey-en-noun-YYzvB3k4 Disambiguation of 'symptoms of withdrawal': 42 53 5
  3. (US military slang, World War I– World War II) Something exposed as a target due to surmountable defense. Tags: US, slang, uncountable Categories (topical): World War I, World War II Synonyms: cold meat, easy target, easy pickings
    Sense id: en-cold_turkey-en-noun-omwUepnH Categories (other): American English Topics: government, military, politics, war

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for cold turkey meaning in English (7.6kB)

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          "word": "ineens"
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          "code": "fr",
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          "word": "d’un coup d’un seul"
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          "sense": "abruptly",
          "word": "突然に"
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          "sense": "abruptly",
          "word": "一度に"
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          "code": "ru",
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          "roman": "rézko",
          "sense": "abruptly",
          "word": "ре́зко"
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          "sense": "abruptly",
          "word": "внеза́пно"
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          "sense": "abruptly",
          "word": "på en gång"
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      "sense": "sudden and complete withdrawal",
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      "sense": "sudden and complete withdrawal",
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        "masculine"
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      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "sudden and complete withdrawal",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
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    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "sudden and complete withdrawal",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "astinenza"
    },
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      "code": "nl",
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      "sense": "symptoms of withdrawal",
      "word": "ontwenningsverschijnselen"
    },
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      "code": "eo",
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      "sense": "symptoms of withdrawal",
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      "code": "it",
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      "sense": "symptoms of withdrawal",
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      "word": "crisi di astinenza"
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      "sense": "symptoms of withdrawal",
      "word": "crise de abstinência"
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      "sense": "symptoms of withdrawal",
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      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "kerralla"
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      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "seinään"
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    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "brutalement"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "d’un coup d’un seul"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "d’un seul coup"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "abrupt"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "hirtelen"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "di colpo"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "di punto in bianco"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "totsuzenni",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "突然に"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "ichidoni",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "一度に"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "rézko",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "ре́зко"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "vnezápno",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "внеза́пно"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "abrupt"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "på en gång"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "abruptly",
      "word": "helt tvärt"
    }
  ],
  "word": "cold turkey"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.