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

So turkey is a kind of meat that we eat.

And when you quit something cold turkey,

it means that you've quit completely, all of a sudden,

and you don't even do that thing a little bit.

We often use this phrase when we talk about people

who quit smoking.

Believe it or not, a long time ago, I was a smoker.

I used to smoke cigarettes, it was really bad.

No one should smoke.

But one day after I got pneumonia,

which is a really bad lung infection, I quit cold turkey.

So I decided that day that I liked breathing,

that I liked having the ability to breathe freely,

and that I didn't like having pneumonia.

It was not a nice sickness to have.

So years ago, after I was sick, I quit cold turkey.

That means I never smoked again after that.

I just stopped that day, and it was over.

So we do use this phrase for other things as well.

People will quit doing other things

in their lives cold turkey.

But we usually use it to refer to something

that they are addicted to.

Sometimes, people who drink a little bit too much

will decide that they need to quit, and they decide

that instead of cutting back, that's another English phrase,

instead of drinking less, or instead of smoking less,

they will quit cold turkey.

That means that they have their last drink,

they have their last smoke, and then they just stop,

and they don't have another one.