Meaning of QUIT COLD TURKEY - A Really Short English Lesson with Subtitles

4,102 views ・ 2019-10-22

Bob's Short English Lessons


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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So turkey is a kind of meat that we eat.
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And when you quit something cold turkey,
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it means that you've quit completely, all of a sudden,
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and you don't even do that thing a little bit.
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We often use this phrase when we talk about people
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who quit smoking.
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Believe it or not, a long time ago, I was a smoker.
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I used to smoke cigarettes, it was really bad.
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No one should smoke.
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But one day after I got pneumonia,
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which is a really bad lung infection, I quit cold turkey.
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So I decided that day that I liked breathing,
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that I liked having the ability to breathe freely,
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and that I didn't like having pneumonia.
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It was not a nice sickness to have.
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So years ago, after I was sick, I quit cold turkey.
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That means I never smoked again after that.
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I just stopped that day, and it was over.
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01:01
So we do use this phrase for other things as well.
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People will quit doing other things
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in their lives cold turkey.
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But we usually use it to refer to something
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that they are addicted to.
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Sometimes, people who drink a little bit too much
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will decide that they need to quit, and they decide
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that instead of cutting back, that's another English phrase,
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instead of drinking less, or instead of smoking less,
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they will quit cold turkey.
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That means that they have their last drink,
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they have their last smoke, and then they just stop,
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and they don't have another one.
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