Describing action of a person who abruptly gives up a habit or an addiction.
The phrase taking cold turkey has also been reported during the 1920s as slang for pleading guilty. The term is also attributed to piloerection (commonly known as goose bumps) that occurs with abrupt withdrawal from opioids (class of drugs which includes heroin), which resembles the skin of a plucked refrigerated turkey.
Example
My smoking habit was getting out of hand and hence decided to go cold turkey
When drug addicts go cold turkey they migh experience a period of extreme suffering