cold turkey

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“It was terrifying. You can’t just go cold turkey on these things,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025

While it won’t kill you like some other vices, trying to quit this spiritually corrosive habit cold turkey is inadvisable.

From Salon • Dec. 3, 2025

If you’re trying to scale back on social media, maybe limit yourself to 15 minutes a day, instead of going cold turkey.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 2, 2024

The best thing to do about racism, he posits, is to just give it up, cold turkey, by announcing that we’re all good now.

From Slate • Jun. 29, 2023

In the evening, as the sky and most of the land turned red, they sat together eating cold turkey drumsticks and wearing green-shaded glasses to watch the lava burn.

From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin