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What does “때려치우다” mean in Korean?

때려치우다 stitches together 때리다 (to hit) and 치우다 (to clear away), so quitting in Korean can sound like you’re smacking something off the table. This isn’t a neutral “resign” — it carries frustration and screw-it energy. You 때려치우다 a dead-end job, a degree, a diet. In speech you’ll often hear shorter forms like 때려치고 or the blunt command 때려쳐!, alongside the full dictionary form 때려치우다.

Here it drives a sibling’s jab: 학교 때려치고 여기서 왜 이러고 있어? — “you dropped out of school, so why are you rotting here?” The 때려- prefix is a productive intensifier that borrows the image of a blow to add force: 때려잡다 (to hunt down / wipe out), 때려부수다 (to smash to bits). Register-wise it’s casual and a bit coarse — natural when venting to friends, but you’d switch to plain 그만두다 (to quit) in polite or professional settings.