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As you are aware, the verbs "quit" and "give up" have quite similar meanings and are often used interchangeably in the sense of stopping doing something:

I gave up / quit smoking.

But how about when it comes to "something" and not "doing something"? For instance I wonder if the following registers are both idiomatic English:

  1. He gave up alcohol last year.
    2. He quit alcohol last year.

I think only #1 works and #2 is not natural English.

PS. the similar thread is not that helpful that it should be to clear up my ambiguity in this case.

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  • As one of the answers in the question to which you linked suggests quit seems to be more common in North America than the UK.
    – mdewey
    Nov 17, 2020 at 17:04
  • Thank you for pointing that out @mdewey. I have already read it within the mentioned thread.
    – A-friend
    Nov 17, 2020 at 17:46

1 Answer 1

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I agree that "He quit alcohol" is somewhat odd, and you would rather say "He quit drinking", or "gave up alcohol".

On the other hand we do say, with a different meaning "He quit his job"

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