quitting early
Leaving before finishing
Quitting early means stopping before the expected or agreed-upon end point—leaving work before closing time, abandoning a project before completion, or giving up on an effort before seeing it through.
The phrase often carries judgment: He has a habit of quitting early when things get hard.
But it can be neutral or even positive: We finished ahead of schedule, so we're quitting early today.
- giving upChoosing to stop trying
- bailingEscaping or emptying water
- jumping shipAbandoning a commitment midway
- walking outLeaving suddenly, often angrily
- throwing in the towelAccepting defeat, stopping effort
tapping out · resignation · dropout · abandonment · surrender · cutting losses · half-finished · incomplete · unfinished · premature · losing steam · impatient · shortcut · escape · ditching · flaking · chickening out · cold feet
- learning mistakesprocrastination, cramming, skipping steps, poor time management, ignoring feedback
- shoddinessslipshod, slapdash, hack job, botch job, botch
- Incomplete Actionsunfinished, partial, halfway, midway, interrupted
quitting earlypersevering
Maintaining effort despite difficulty
sticking it out · going the distance · following through · hanging in there · persistence
quitting earlyoverstaying
Remaining beyond proper duration
lingering · working overtime · burning the midnight oil · hanging around · sticking around
quit, quitting, quits, quitter, quitters, early, earlier, earliest, earliness