spill

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spill

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From Middle English spillen, from Old English spillan, spildan (“to kill, destroy, waste”), from Proto-West Germanic *spilþijan, from Proto-Germanic *spilþijaną (“to spoil, kill, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pel- (“to sunder, split, rend, tear”).

Cognate with Dutch spillen (“to use needlessly, waste”), French gaspiller ("to waste, squander" < Germanic), Bavarian spillen (“to split, cleave, splinter”), Danish spilde (“to spill, waste”), Swedish spilla (“to spill, waste”), Icelandic spilla (“to contaminate, spoil”). See also spool.

• IPA^(key): /spɪl/
  • (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key):
  • (l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): ,

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪl

spill (third-person singular simple present spills, present participle spilling, simple past and past participle spilled or spilt)

1. (transitive) To drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to accidentally pour.

   I spilled some sticky juice on the kitchen floor.

2. (intransitive) To spread out or fall out, as above.

   Some sticky juice spilled onto the kitchen floor.

   • 1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: , London: James Brackstone, , →OCLC:

     He was so topful of himself, that he let it spill on all the company.

3. (intransitive, of a crowd or people within a crowd) To overflow out of a designated area.

   The crowd spilled onto Maple Avenue.

4. (transitive) To drop something that was intended to be caught.
   • 2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport‎:

     That should have been that, but Hart caught a dose of the Hennessey wobbles and spilled Adlene Guedioura's long-range shot.

5. To mar; to damage; to destroy by misuse; to waste.
   • 1589, George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie:

     They [the colours] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship.

   • 1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Roger Daniel for John Williams, , →OCLC:

     Spill not the morning (the quintessence of day) in recreations.

6. (obsolete, intransitive) To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Man of Lawes Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, , →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, , : [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes , 1542, →OCLC:

     That thou wilt suffer innocence to spill.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 16th century, Anonymous, "The Old Cloak", st. 1, as reported in The Oxford Book of English Verse (1900):

     This winter’s weather it waxeth cold, / And frost it freezeth on every hill, / And Boreas blows his blast so bold / That all our cattle are like to spill.

7. (intransitive) To overflow or flow out, over or off something.
8. (transitive) To cause or flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed.
   • 1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. , London: J M for H Herringman , published 1667, →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii, page 44:

     to revenge his Blood, ſo juſtly ſpilt, / VVhat is it leſs then to partake his guilt?

9. (transitive, slang, obsolete) To cause to be thrown from a mount, a carriage, etc.
   • 2007, Eric Flint, David Weber, 1634: The Baltic War:

     Then, not thirty feet beyond, a sudden panicky lunge to the side by his horse spilled him from the saddle.

10. To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

      And all the others pavement were with yvory spilt

11. (nautical) To relieve a sail from the pressure of the wind, so that it can be more easily reefed or furled, or to lessen the strain.
12. (transitive, Australian politics) To open the leadership of a parliamentary party for re-election.
13. (transitive, intransitive) To reveal information to an uninformed party.

    He spilled his guts out to his new psychologist.

    • 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 32:

      ‘You wanted to know where we were going. Follow me. I’m going to spill it.’

14. (of a knot) To come undone.
15. (transitive) To express (something), especially repeatedly or floridly; to be expressed.

    He spilled insults about the other team.

    Praise spilled from him every day.

spill (plural spills)

1. (countable) A mess of something that has been dropped.
2. A fall or stumble.

   The bruise is from a bad spill he had last week.

3. A small stick or piece of paper used to light a candle, cigarette etc by the transfer of a flame from a fire.
   • 2008, Elizabeth Bear, Ink and Steel: A Novel of the Promethean Age:

     Kit froze with the pipe between his teeth, the relit spill pressed to the weed within it.

4. A slender piece of anything.
   1. A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask; a spile.
   2. A metallic rod or pin.
   3. A spillikin.
      • 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 125:

        A tool with which to extract the spills from the pile.

   4. (Shropshire, Herefordshire) A splinter caught in the skin.
5. (mining) One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.
6. (sound recording) The situation where sound is picked up by a microphone from a source other than that which is intended.
7. (obsolete) A small sum of money.
   • 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. , London: D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe , →OCLC:

     Spill or Sportule for the same from the credulous Laity

8. (Australian politics) A declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant, and open for re-election. Short form of leadership spill.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:spill.

• pills

spill

1. Romanization of 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐌻𐌻

From English spill.

spill

1. (slang) to spill a person's secret or disgrace

spill

1. second-person singular imperative of spillen

From Old English spillan.

spill

1. Alternative form of spillen

• spell

From the verb spille.

• IPA^(key): /spɪl/
• Rhymes: -ɪl

spill n (definite singular spillet, indefinite plural spill, definite plural spilla or spillene)

1. a game (or part of a game, e.g., a hand, a round); equipment for a game (e.g., deck of cards, set of dice, board, men, pieces, etc.)
2. play, playing

   ballen er ute av spill - the ball is out of play

3. gambling; card-playing
4. musical instrument (in compounds such as trekkspill (“accordion”))
5. stage play
6. flickering, play, sparkling (of flames, lights, colors, eyes, a smile)

• spel (Nynorsk)

spill

1. imperative of spille

• “spill” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

spill n

1. waste, unusable surplus material
2. a spill (a mess of something spilled, dropped or leaked)

spill

1. imperative of spilla