cold turkey

See also: cold-turkey

English

Etymology

Various explanations; see Cold turkey § Etymology on Wikipedia.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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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.

Translations

sudden and complete withdrawal

• Danish: kold tyrker
• Dutch: abrupte ontwenning
• German: kalter Entzug (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: tobstaonadh m
• Italian: astinenza completa f, astinenza (it) f

symptoms of withdrawal

• Dutch: ontwenningsverschijnselen
• French: manque (fr) m
• Irish: tobstaonadh m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: crisi di astinenza f
• Portuguese: crise de abstinência
• Swedish: abstinenssymtom

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.

Translations

abruptly

• Dutch: ineens (nl)
• Finnish: kerralla (fi), seinään
• French: brutalement (fr), d’un coup d’un seul (fr), d’un seul coup (fr)
• German: abrupt (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: di colpo, di punto in bianco (it)
• Japanese: 突然に (totsuzenni), 一度に (ichidoni)
• Russian: ре́зко (ru) (rézko), внеза́пно (ru) (vnezápno)
• Swedish: abrupt (sv), på en gång (sv), helt tvärt