Greene, who was bidding for an unprecedented fourth sprint title, got off to a great start in his semifinal but started grimacing about midway through the race as the field blew past him. He finished eighth and next-to-last, limping across the line and holding the back of left leg.
"I just felt my quad muscle pop, just a little pop in my quad muscle," Greene said. "I kept trying to go through it but it just got worse and worse as I went down the track."
Greene said he would miss the rest of the championships and would not compete in the 400m relay this weekend.
Another American defending champion, Stacy Dragila, was eliminated in the women's pole vault final when she failed to clear 4.60m.
The title went to Russia's Svetlana Feofanova, who equaled the championship record by clearing 4.75m meters. Annika Becker of Germany took the silver with a best vault of 4.70m, while world record-holder Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia managed only 4.65m and settled for bronze.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Edwards' career came to a disappointing end as he pulled out during the men's triple jump final.
The 37-year-old British star -- the defending world champion, reigning Olympic champion and world record-holder -- announced last week he would retire after these championships.
Edwards, who suffered a badly injured ankle two weeks ago, quit after just two jumps of 14.06m and 16.31m. He put on a white track suit jacket and went to watch the rest of the competition from the sidelines.
Sweden's Christian Olsson, the world's dominant performer all year, won the triple jump gold by soaring 17.72m on his first attempt. Yoandri Betanzos of Cuba took the silver with 17.28m and Leevan Sands of the Bahamas bronze with 17.26m. In other finals, South Africa's Jacques Freitag won the men's high jump, clearing a season's world best height of 2.35m; Ivan Tikhon of Belarus won the hammer with a throw of 83.05m; and Irina Yatchenko of Belarus won the women's discus with a throw of 67.32m.
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