How to Use cold turkey in a Sentence

cold turkey

1 of 2 noun
  • I tried lots of ways to stop smoking, even cold turkey.
  • At first, the idea of going cold turkey is jarring and scary.
    — Lauren Decarlo, Condé Nast Traveler, 5 Jan. 2026
  • Some find that they are drawn to alcohol and going cold turkey is quite a shock.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2025
  • Tapering the use of these drugs rather than quitting cold turkey may be safest.
    — Emily Kay Votruba, EverydayHealth.com, 30 May 2025
  • Quitting cold turkey is faster and can reset tolerance in one to two weeks.
    — Samantha Agate, Charlotte Observer, 11 June 2026
  • Quitting cold turkey is faster and can reset tolerance in one to two weeks.
    — Samantha Agate, Charlotte Observer, 13 June 2026
  • Even with his cold turkey approach, Ryan might not be an outlier.
    — Barnaby Lashbrooke, Forbes, 3 Dec. 2024
  • More difficult is going cold turkey on riffing his way through life.
    — Jake Coyle, Boston Herald, 11 Sep. 2025
  • The step-by-step approach matters because going cold turkey rarely sticks.
    — Lauren Jarvis-Gibson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 29 May 2026
  • Just stopping the medication cold turkey on your own isn’t the best way to deal with side effects.
    — Cathy Cassata, Health, 3 July 2023
  • The cleanest method is a gradual taper rather than going cold turkey.
    — Samantha Agate, Kansas City Star, 11 June 2026
  • The cleanest method is a gradual taper rather than going cold turkey.
    — Samantha Agate, Kansas City Star, 13 June 2026
  • How to digital detox Fisher warns that going cold turkey can be a jolt to the system.
    — Rachel Hale, USA Today, 7 June 2025
  • Remember not to go to cold turkey to prevent withdrawal symptoms.
    — Ann Pietrangelo, Verywell Health, 16 Oct. 2024
  • But unlike nicotine or narcotics, food is something that all people need to survive, so quitting cold turkey isn’t an option.
    — Claire Wilcox, The Conversation, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Ray lost over 40 pounds in four months and quit the medicine cold turkey after hitting his goal, with his prescribing doctor’s blessing.
    — Carma Hassan, CNN, 16 Nov. 2024
  • But cutting Big Russ forced the Broncos to go cold turkey in record time, to eat a ton of cap money and go young all over the place.
    — Sean Keeler, The Denver Post, 6 Jan. 2025
  • After a grim prognosis from a doctor, Sanchez was motivated to stop drinking cold turkey.
    — Daniel Gonzalez, The Arizona Republic, 15 Dec. 2024
  • Rather than going cold turkey on nightly dinner dates, try scaling back to just weekends, then using Thursday nights to grab drinks with your college pals.
    — Jenna Ryu, SELF, 13 Dec. 2024
  • Going cold turkey is, often, an onerous way of quitting something completely and suddenly.
    — Natalie Escobar, NPR, 26 Nov. 2025
  • Quitting hydrocarbons cold turkey would set civilization back hundreds of years.
    — Erik Kobayashi-Solomon, Forbes, 23 Oct. 2024
  • The food menu has salads and breakfast sandwiches, paninis and burritos ($11-$15), as well as a lone cold turkey club.
    — John Metcalfe, Mercury News, 13 May 2026
  • How to cut down on soda Quitting soda cold turkey can be tough, especially because sugar and caffeine can both be addictive.
    — USA TODAY, 23 July 2023
  • Quitting cold turkey can worsen withdrawal symptoms that are associated with a higher failure rate.
    — Brittney Melton, NPR, 23 Jan. 2025
  • In addition, withdrawal from opioid addiction puts the unborn baby at risk, so pregnant women who are using opioids can’t just quit cold turkey.
    — Gretchen Cuda Kroen, cleveland, 26 July 2023
  • That’s why quitting cold turkey can be difficult and ineffective for someone used to frequently vaping high doses of nicotine.
    — Quispe López, Them, 3 Feb. 2025
  • Going off the drugs cold turkey, as Parker Posey’s character does, could lead to dangerous withdrawal symptoms in real life.
    — Emily Kay Votruba, EverydayHealth.com, 19 Mar. 2025
  • Even if head coach Mike Elko and his staff stopped recruiting cold turkey today and didn't pick up their phones until after signing day, this class would already be in some rarefied air.
    — Austin Perry Outkick, FOXNews.com, 2 June 2026
  • Quitting cold turkey is the fastest route and can reset your tolerance in one to two weeks, Performance Lab notes, while a slow taper takes longer but tends to cause fewer side effects.
    — Samantha Agate, Kansas City Star, 13 June 2026
  • Quitting cold turkey is the fastest route and can reset your tolerance in one to two weeks, Performance Lab notes, while a slow taper takes longer but tends to cause fewer side effects.
    — Samantha Agate, Kansas City Star, 11 June 2026

cold turkey

2 of 2 adverb
  • Don’t decide to just wean yourself off those or go cold turkey.
    — Korin Miller, SELF, 18 Oct. 2018
  • For me, quitting face wipes cold turkey was the hardest part.
    — Meirav Devash, Allure, 15 Oct. 2018
  • Amy, when my father had a stroke, he was forced to stop smoking, cold turkey.
    — Amy Dickinson, chicagotribune.com, 2 June 2018
  • Giving up all that sugar from drinks and snacks, cold turkey, made for a nice headache.
    — courier-journal.com, 13 May 2020
  • The trout were forced to quit cold turkey after two months of swimming in meth-y waters.
    — Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 July 2021
  • Take it from somebody who has been trying, and failing, to go cold turkey for weeks.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 29 Sep. 2019
  • His son finally quit cold turkey.
    — Jen Christensen, CNN Money, 19 Dec. 2025
  • Is there a way to transition them out of driving rather than taking away the keys cold turkey?
    — Andrea K. McDaniels, baltimoresun.com, 21 June 2018
  • Brown claims the industrial world can't afford to go cold turkey off oil.
    — William Lajeunesse, Fox News, 13 Sep. 2018
  • Still, many of us crave that sugary sweetness, so going cold turkey might not be an option.
    — Molly Kimball, NOLA.com, 8 May 2018
  • The brain effects are why going cold turkey has dismal success rates.
    — Maggie Mertens, Glamour, 19 Sep. 2017
  • More difficult is going cold turkey on riffing his way through life.
    — Jake Coyle, Boston Herald, 11 Sep. 2025
  • The first step is going cold turkey for about a month, both Lembke and Duffy said.
    — Madeline Holcombe, CNN, 30 Oct. 2021
  • Quitting cold turkey wasn't an easy feat, however.
    — Daniela Avila, PEOPLE, 29 Nov. 2025
  • Others say the only way to beat an addiction is to quit cold turkey and go device-free.
    — Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic, 7 Oct. 2021
  • This is exactly what Link does when Amelia is left with four kids and a cold turkey in the oven.
    — Lincee Ray, EW.com, 19 Nov. 2021
  • First off, there’s no need to go cold turkey or follow any other kind of horrible detox program.
    — Elijah Rawls, Men's Health, 14 June 2022
  • Since the insurrection, mainstream outlets have gone cold turkey, more or less.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 21 Jan. 2021
  • Quitting this person will not be entirely painless, but do it cold turkey anyway.
    — Abigail Van Buren, oregonlive, 21 Mar. 2022
  • Spencer Haywood, who tries and fails to quit cocaine cold turkey at Kareem’s behest.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 2 May 2022
  • Synanon forced its patients to go cold turkey and cut off all communication from family and friends.
    — Jennifer Wilson, The New Republic, 28 June 2021
  • Unlike Luck, the pain of football has not become so unbearable as to force Wolfe to quit cold turkey.
    — Mark Kiszla, The Denver Post, 26 Oct. 2019
  • Luckily, my father quit cold turkey 20 years ago and never relapsed.
    — Abigail Van Buren, oregonlive, 19 Apr. 2022
  • He's been sober ever since, still living in Columbia, and six months ago quit cigarettes cold turkey.
    — Sandra Sobieraj Westfall, PEOPLE.com, 16 June 2021
  • But, in April 1987, Collen decided to quit cold turkey.
    — Todd Longwell, Variety, 9 Oct. 2025
  • Philip reportedly quit the habit cold turkey on his wedding day to Elizabeth.
    — Kayleigh Roberts, Marie Claire, 17 Oct. 2020
  • Bruno said studies show two-thirds of smokers want to quit but only about 3 percent of those who try to kick the habit cold turkey are successful.
    — Meredith Cohn, baltimoresun.com, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Cutting your hot-styling sessions down to twice a week can really help, and going cold turkey for a couple of months gives new hair a chance to grow in stronger.
    — Loren Savini, Allure, 23 May 2018
  • But unlike nicotine or narcotics, food is something that all people need to survive, so quitting cold turkey isn’t an option.
    — Claire Wilcox, The Conversation, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Instead of risking getting caught, most pitchers have seemingly gone cold turkey on the funny business.
    — Andrew Beaton, WSJ, 2 July 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cold turkey.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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