Quit as Predicate Adjective

Quit as Predicate Adjective Quit as Predicate Adjective Quit as Predicate Adjective By Maeve Maddox Does anyone else cringe at the use of quit in the commercial that says: 44% of †¦ users were quit during weeks 9 to 12 of treatment. The context screams for quit as a verb, not as a predicate adjective: 44% of users †¦ had quit after nine weeks. The OEDs entry for quit in predicative sense offers these illustrations: When the book was restored the borrower [was] declared quit. (1866) This charter confers the right of having one man quit from tallage in every royal borough. 1928 Ralph is not quit of his wartime melancholy. (1945) He is tired of Sophina. He wishes to be quit of her, but she cannot afford to leave him. (1997) The example from 1866 sounds a bit like legal jargon. The one from 1928 uses from where we might say of. Those from 1945 and 1997, which include the particle of, sound perfectly idiomatic. When starting to write this post, Id expected to argue that nobody uses quit with a being verb without the of, but Ive found many examples of the infinitive phrase to be quit, mostly in informal writing in comments and forums, and mostly in connection with beating the cigarette habit: I am grateful to be quit. It is 5 months and 3 weeks. But one thing I have not lost sight of:   How truly truly grateful I am to be desperate to be quit. Smoking was a [habit] that had to be quit. David Gelkin has it right – the idea quitting is always bad – is an idea that ought to be quit. But after hearing Ms. Rice’s description of Christianity, I’m thinking it deserves to be quit. Idiom is tricky. The statements with to be quit dont offend my ear the way that drug commercial does. Is it just me? Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Arrive To vs. Arrive AtUsed To vs. Use ToEpidemic vs. Pandemic vs. Endemic