Reports from several hospitals relative to the cases of addicts who had been I like this 30th July 1919 quote: it's from a doctor who says it's the addicts' own term and he also defines it in the same sentence. The OED has cold turkey, an abrupt withdrawal from drugs, dating from 1921 but I found some antedatings. I'll keep looking for first drug reference. How often have we admired the poor knight, who, to avoid the snares of bribery and dependence, was found making a second dinner from a cold shoulder of mutton, above the most affluent courtier, who had sold himself to others for a splendid pension! įound the 1910 reference from The Trail of '98 by Robert William Service, though it's not clear to me how exactly the phrase is being used in this passage:Ĭouldn't find any reference before this. cold shoulder.ġ816, in the figurative sense of "icy reception," first in Sir Walter Scott, probably originally a literal figure, but commonly used with a punning reference to "cold shoulder of mutton," considered a poor man's dish and thus, perhaps, something one would set out for an unwanted guest with deliberate intention to convey displeasure. Cold turkey is a food that requires little preparation, so "to quit like cold turkey" is to do so suddenly and without preparation. "without preparation," 1910 narrower sense of "withdrawal from an addictive substance" (originally heroin) first recorded 1921. There may be others.Īs to the phrase's origin, Etymonline favors the "quick preparation" theory and indicates there was a period of time where it was not associated with kicking a bad habit. Go is the most common, but you can also quit cold turkey, or kick something cold turkey.
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