• quight(obsolete)

A development ofquit, influence byAnglo-Normanquite.Doublet ofcoy,quit,quiet, andquietus. For an analogous semantic development from the same root, compareArmenianշատ(šat).

• (Received Pronunciation,General American)enPR:kwīt,IPA^(key):/kwaɪt/

• Audio(US):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-aɪt

quite (notcomparable)

1. To thegreatest extent or degree;completely,entirely.

   Synonyms:very,absolutely,fully,thoroughly,totally,utterly;see alsoThesaurus:completely

   1. With verbs, especially past participles.[from 14th c.]
      • 1590,Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, inThe Faerie Queene. […], London:[…] [John Wolfe] forWilliam Ponsonbie,→OCLC, stanza 49,page118:

        Thus when they had the witch diſrobedquight, / And all her filthy feature open ſhowne, / They let her goe at will, and wander waies vnknowne.

      • 2005 October 4, Adrian Searle,The Guardian:

        Nobuyoshi Araki has been called a monster, a pornographer and a genius—and the photographerquite agrees.

   2. With prepositional phrases and spatial adverbs.[from 15th c.]
      • 1891,Thomas Nelson Page,On Newfound River:

        Margaret passedquite through the pines, and reached the opening beyond which was what was once the yard, but was now, except for a strip of flower-border and turf which showed care, simply a tangle of bushes and briars.

      • 2010 October 30, Joanna Briscoe,The Guardian:

        Religion and parochial etiquette are probed to reveal unhealthy, and sometimes shockingly violent, internal desiresquite at odds with the surface life of a town in which tolerance is preached.

   3. With predicative adjectives.[from 15th c.]
      • 1915 December 4 –1916 January 8, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter V, inThe Son of Tarzan, Chicago, Ill.:A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published March 1917,→OCLC,pages66–67:

        El adrea wasquite dead. No more will he slink silently upon his unsuspecting prey.

      • 1950, C. S. Lewis,The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:

        It was almostquite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched out in front of her so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe.

      • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster,The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.:Field Museum of Natural History,→ISBN, page 5:

        In Lejeuneaceae vegetative branches normally originate from the basiscopic basal portion of a lateral segment half, as in the Radulaceae, and the associated leaves, therefore, arequite unmodified.

   4. With attributive adjectives, following an (especially indefinite)article; chiefly as expressing contrast, difference etc.[from 16th c.]
      • 2003,Richard Dawkins,A Devil's Chaplain:

        When I warned him that his words might be offensive to identical twins, he said that identical twins were aquite different case.

      • 2011 September 18, Peter Preston,The Observer:

        Create a new,quite separate, private company – say Murdoch Newspaper Holdings – and give it all, or most of, the papers that News Corp owns.

   5. Preceding nouns introduced by the indefinite article. Chiefly in negative constructions.[from 16th c.]
      • 1791,James Boswell, “[1763]”, in James Boswell, editor,The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume I, London:[…] Henry Baldwin, forCharles Dilly, […],→OCLC,page227:

        I ventured to hint that he was notquite a fair judge, as[Charles] Churchill had attacked him violently.

      • 1920,John Galsworthy, “Timothy Stays the Rot”, inIn Chancery (The Forsyte Saga; 2), London:William Heinemann,→OCLC, part II,page212:

        And with a prolonged sound, notquite a sniff and notquite a snort, he trod on Euphemia's toe, and went out, leaving a sensation and a faint scent of barley−sugar behind him.

   6. With adverbs ofmanner.[from 17th c.]
      • 2009, John F. Schmutz,The Battle of the Crater: A complete history:

        However, the proceedings werequite carefully orchestrated to produce what seemed to be a predetermined outcome.

      • 2011 October 18, Bob Burgess,The Guardian:

        Higher education institutions in the UK are,quite rightly, largely autonomous.

2. In a fully justified sense;truly,perfectly,actually.
   1. Coming before the indefinite article and an attributive adjective. (Now largely merged with moderative senses, below.)[from 17th c.]
      • 1898,Charles Garvice,Nell of Shorne Mills:

        "My little plot has been rather successful, after all, hasn't it?" "Quite a perfect success," said Drake.

      • 2001 February 7, Paul Brown,The Guardian:

        While the government claims to lead the world with its plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the figures tellquite a different story.

   2. With plain adjectives, past participles, and adverbs.[from 18th c.]
      • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, inZollenstein, New York, N.Y.:D. Appleton & Company,→OCLC:

        “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. / Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. / “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

      • 2010 November 5, Dave Hill,The Guardian:

        London Underground isquite unique in how many front line staff it has, as anyone who has travelled on the Paris Metro or New York Subway will testify.

   3. Coming before the definite article and an attributive superlative.[from 18th c.]
      • 1910,Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Soul of Laploshka”, inReginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London:Methuen & Co. […],→OCLC,page66:

        Laploshka was one of the meanest men I have ever met, andquite one of the most entertaining.

      • 1923 October 8, “The New Pictures”, inTime:

        Scaramouche has already been greeted as the finest French Revolution yet brought to the screen-and even if you are a little weary of seeing a strongly American band of sans-culottes demolish a pasteboard Paris, you should not miss Scaramouche, for it isquite the best thing Rex Ingram has done since The Four Horsemen.

   4. Before a noun preceded by an indefinite article; now often with ironic implications that the noun in question is particularly noteworthy or remarkable.[from 18th c.]
      • 1830, Senate debate, 15 April:

        To debauch the Indians with rum and cheat them of their land wasquite a Government affair, and not at all criminal; but to use rum to cheat them of their peltry, was an abomination in the sight of the law.

      • 2011, Gilbert Morris,The Crossing:

        “Looks like you and Clay hadquite a party,” she said with a glimmer in her dark blue eyes.

   5. Before a noun preceded by the definite article.[from 18th c.]
      • 1871 July –1873 February,Anthony Trollope, “The Aspirations of Mr. Emilius”, inThe Eustace Diamonds. A Novel, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers, […], published1872,→OCLC,page288, column 1:

        It isquite the proper thing for a lady to be on intimate, and even on affectionate, terms with her favourite clergyman, and Lizzie certainly had intercourse with no clergyman who was a greater favourite with her than Mr. Emilius.

      • 2006 February 6, Sherman Alexie, “When the story stolen is your own”, inTime:

        His memoir features a child named Tommy Nothing Fancy who suffers from and dies of a seizure disorder.Quite the coincidence, don't you think?

   6. (nowrare)With prepositional or adverbial phrases.[from 18th c.]
4. To amoderate extent or degree;somewhat,rather.[from 19th c.]

   Mind your shoes, the basement isquite wet.

   Synonyms:seeThesaurus:moderately

• This is anon-descriptive qualifier, similar tofairly andrather andsomewhat. Used where a plain adjective needs to be modified, but cannot be qualified. When spoken, the meaning can vary with the tone of voice and stress.He wasquite big can mean anything from "not exactly small" to "almost huge".

• Jersey Dutch:kwāit

quite

1. (chieflyUK)Indicates agreement; exactly so.

   “That's a rather ugly colour for a house, don't you think?” — “Quite.”

FromSpanishquite.

• (UK)IPA^(key):/ˈkiːteɪ/

  • Audio(Southern England):

    (file)

quite (pluralquites)

1. (bullfighting) A series ofpasses made with the cape to distract thebull.

• quiet

quite

1. inflection ofquitar:
   1. first/third-personsingularpresentsubjunctive
   2. third-personsingularimperative

quīte

1. second-personpluralpresentactiveimperative ofqueō

Learned borrowing fromLatinquiētus (pronounced inMedieval Latin asquíetus > quitus). Compare the inheritedcoi.

quite m (oblique and nominative feminine singularquite)

1. free,liberated

• Middle French:quitte
  • French:quitte
• → Middle English:quit,quite
  • English:quit,quite
• → Old Galician-Portuguese:quite,quieto,quito,quita
  • Portuguese:quite

• Godefroy, Frédéric,Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes duIX^e auXV^e siècle (1881) (quitte, supplement)
• quite on theAnglo-Norman On-Line Hub

• quieto,quito,quita

Borrowed fromOld Frenchquite, borrowed fromLatinquiētus, fromProto-Indo-European*kʷyeh₁-.Doublet ofquedo.

quite m orf (pluralquites)

1. quit(released from obligation)

• Portuguese:quite

• Manuel Ferreiro (2014–2025) “quite”, inUniverso Cantigas. Edición crítica da poesía medieval galego-portuguesa (in Galician), A Coruña:University of A Coruña,→ISSN
• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane,María Álvarez de la Granja,Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “quite”, inDicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “quite”, inCorpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega

• Rhymes:-it͡ʃi,-itɨ
• Homophone:kit
• Hyphenation:qui‧te

FromOld Galician-Portuguesequite, fromOld Frenchquitte(“free; liberated”), fromLatinquiētus.Doublet ofquieto andquedo.

quite m orf (pluralquites)

1. quit(released from obligation)
2. (usually in theplural)even;quits(on equal terms)

   Estamosquites.

   We’reeven.

See the etymology of the correspondinglemma form.

quite

1. inflection ofquitar:
   1. first/third-personsingularpresentsubjunctive
   2. third-personsingularimperative

• IPA^(key):/ˈkite/[ˈki.t̪e]
• Rhymes:-ite
• Syllabification:qui‧te

Deverbal fromquitar.

quite m (pluralquites)

1. the action ofremoval
2. aswerve orsidestep

quite

1. inflection ofquitar:
   1. first/third-personsingularpresentsubjunctive
   2. third-personsingularimperative

• “quite”, inDiccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8,Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish:Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10