cold turkey

n. Slang

1. Immediate, complete withdrawal from something on which one has become dependent, such as an addictive drug.
2. Blunt language or procedural method.
3. A cold fish.

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Immediate, complete withdrawal from something, especially an addictive substance; also, without planning or preparation. For example, My bad shoulder forced me to quit playing tennis cold turkey, or I'd never done any rock climbing, but decided to try it cold turkey. This term may have come from the earlier expression talk turkey (for blunt speaking). At first used strictly for abrupt withdrawal from drugs or alcohol, it soon was transferred to quitting any habit or activity. [Early 1900s]

Origin: 1922

By 1922, cold turkey was not always a leftover from Thanksgiving dinner. For an addict, it was quite the opposite. "This method of sudden withdrawall," explained a writer that year, "is described in the jargon of the jail as 'the cold turkey' treatment," It meant "to immediately and completely give up a substance, such as narcotics or alcohol, to which one was addicted."

The shock to the system was such that few addicts voluntarily chose it. "Mention of the 'cold turkey treatment' gives a chill of horror to a drug addict," said Newsweek in 1933. "It means being thrown in jail with his drug supply completely cut off." And Mickey Spillane wrote in I, the Jury (1947), "I doubt if you can comprehend what it means to one addicted to narcotics to go 'cold turkey' as they call it."

This use of cold turkey is an outgrowth of a previous sense, attested as early as 1910, meaning "extreme plainness and directness," going back to talk turkey, attested in 1830. Carl Sandburg used the term this way in a 1922 letter: "I'm going to talk cold turkey with the booksellers about the hot gravy in the stories."

Nowadays going cold turkey is not restricted to narcotics and alcohol addiction. We speak of it as an extreme means of quitting any attachment or habit that we find hazardous to our health: cigarettes, chocolate, a television show, sex--perhaps even a sports team.

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noun
noun, orig US

The sudden, complete, giving up of an addictive drug, esp. as a method of withdrawal. (1921 —) .
K. Orvis I made one cold-turkey cure and it nearly killed me (1962).

[From the notion of the simple abruptness of the withdrawal, with reference to a simple dish of cold turkey, without garnish.]

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For a list of words related to cold turkey, see:

• Paraphernalia and Behavior - cold turkey: Informal. sudden withdrawal from addictive drug use

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