cold turkey

See also: cold-turkey

English

Etymology

Various explanations; see Cold turkey § Etymology on Wikipedia.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

cold turkey (uncountable)

1. Sudden and complete withdrawal from a dependent substance, especially a drug.
2. The physiological effects of such a withdrawal.
3. (US military slang, World War I– World War II) Something exposed as a target due to surmountable defense.

   Synonyms: cold meat, easy target, easy pickings

Translations

sudden and complete withdrawal

• Danish: kold tyrker
• Dutch: abrupte ontwenning
• Finnish: lopettaminen kuin seinään
• German: kalter Entzug (de) m
• Hungarian: hirtelen abbahagyás/elhagyás/megvonás
• Irish: tobstaonadh m
• Italian: astinenza completa f, astinenza (it) f
• Polish: nagły i całkowity odwyk m

symptoms of withdrawal

• Dutch: ontwenningsverschijnselen (nl)
• Esperanto: abstina sindromo
• French: manque (fr) m
• Irish: tobstaonadh m
• Italian: crisi di astinenza f
• Portuguese: crise de abstinência
• Swedish: abstinenssymtom (sv)

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.

   It is difficult, but possible to quit smoking cold turkey.

   • 2012 April 4, Sam Anderson, “Just One More Game ...”, in The New York Times Magazine‎^[2]:

     I knew that, if I had daily access to video games, I would spend literally every day playing them, forever. So I cut myself off, more or less cold turkey, and as a result I was more or less happy and productive.

   • 2023 October 5, Rich Pelley, “Joan Baez: ‘I talk to trees to get answers. They give it to you cold turkey’”, in The Guardian, UK:

     Joan Baez:: ‘I talk to trees to get answers. They give it to you cold turkey’.

Translations

abruptly

• Dutch: ineens (nl)
• Finnish: kerralla (fi), seinään (fi)
• French: brutalement (fr), d’un coup d’un seul (fr), d’un seul coup (fr)
• German: abrupt (de)
• Hungarian: hirtelen (hu)
• Italian: di colpo, di punto in bianco (it)
• Japanese: 突然に (totsuzenni), 一度に (ichidoni)
• Polish: raptem (pl)
• Russian: ре́зко (ru) (rézko), внеза́пно (ru) (vnezápno)
• Swedish: abrupt (sv), på en gång (sv), helt tvärt
• Yiddish: פֿון דער העלער הויט (fun der heler hoyt), מיט אַ מאָל (mit a mol)

Verb

cold turkey (third-person singular simple present cold turkeys, present participle cold turkeying, simple past and past participle cold turkeyed)

1. (informal) To undergo sudden and complete withdrawal from a dependent substance, especially a drug.