SUPPA-RI すっぱり
Meanings
1. Describes cutting something apart cleanly and decisively, as if with a single stroke.
2. Describes dealing with, ending, or giving up something decisively, leaving no lingering attachment or ambiguity.
Examples
2. Cut ties with those bad friends once and for all and get your life back on track.
悪い友達とはすっぱり縁を切って、生活を立て直すんだぞ。
2. When we had a child, I quit smoking completely.
子どもができたので、タバコをすっぱりとやめた。
Dogmatic Opinion
I picture a cord being severed cleanly with a single stroke of a sword.
Something is cut apart and separated so decisively that the two sides will never come together again.
That physical image carries directly into figurative uses: ending a relationship, abandoning a habit, or making a clean break without hesitation or lingering attachment.
Proximate Expression
once and for all
Related Words
For Japanese Learners
Cleanly, decisively, completely, once and for all, and make a clean break are useful equivalents. “すっぱり切る” is cut cleanly; “タバコをすっぱりやめる” may be quit smoking completely or quit once and for all. SUPPA-RI strongly suggests a clean severance.
