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, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
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”).
Pronunciation
Verb
spill (third-person singular simple present spills, present participle spilling, simple past and past participle spilled or spilt)
- (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.
- (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.
- (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.
- 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.
- (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:
- (transitive) To cause to 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?
- (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.
- To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay.
- (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.
- (transitive, Australian politics) To open the leadership of a parliamentary party for re-election.
- (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.’
- (of a knot) To come undone.
Derived terms
Translations
transitive: to drop something so that it spreads out
- Arabic: دَلَقَ (dalaqa), أَرَاقَ (ʔarāqa), أَسْجَمَ (ʔasjama)
- Hijazi Arabic: كَبّ (kabb), دلق (dalag)
- Aromanian: versu
- Azerbaijani: tökmək (az), dağıtmaq (az), calamaq
- Bulgarian: разливам (bg) (razlivam)
- Catalan: vessar (ca)
- Cherokee: ᎠᏤᏫᎠ (atsewia)
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 倒瀉/倒泻 (dou2 se3-2)
- Mandarin: 潑掉/泼掉 (pōdiào), 潑/泼 (zh) (pō), 洩漏/泄漏 (zh) (xièlòu)
- Czech: rozlít (of fluid), rozsypat (solid substance)
- Danish: spilde
- Dutch: morsen (nl)
- Esperanto: verŝi
- Estonian: please add this translation if you can
- Finnish: läikyttää (fi) (small), kaataa (fi) (large), päästää (fi) (industrial scale)
- French: déverser (fr), répandre (fr), renverser (fr)
- Friulian: spandi, stranfâ
- Galician: derramar (gl)
- Georgian: ღვრა (ɣvra)
- German: verschütten (de), schütten (de)
- Greek: χύνω (el) (chýno)
- Hebrew: שפך (he) (shafákh)
- Higaonon: migpusik
- Hungarian: önt (hu), borít (hu), szór (hu)
- Ido: varsar (io)
- Italian: rovesciare (it), versare (it)
- Japanese: 零れる (ja) (koboreru), 零す (ja) (kobosu)
- Khmer: កំពប់ (km) (kɑmpup)
- Korean: 엎지르다 (eopjireuda)
- Latvian: please add this translation if you can
- Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
- Low German:
- German Low German: verspillen, spillen, pütschern, pülschen
- Occitan: versar (oc)
- Polish: wylać (pl), rozlać się
- Portuguese: derramar (pt), entornar (pt)
- Punjabi:
- Gurmukhi: ਰੋੜ੍ਹਨਾ (roṛhnā), ਡੋਲ੍ਹਣਾ (ḍolhṇā)
- Shahmukhi: روڑھنا (roṛhnā), ڈولھݨا (ḍolhṇā)
- Romanian: vărsa (ro)
- Russian: пролива́ть (ru) impf (prolivátʹ), проли́ть (ru) pf (prolítʹ); разлива́ть (ru) impf (razlivátʹ), разли́ть (ru) pf (razlítʹ); (dry substances) просыпа́ть (ru) impf (prosypátʹ), просы́пать (ru) pf (prosýpatʹ); рассыпа́ть (ru) impf (rassypátʹ), рассы́пать (ru) pf (rassýpatʹ)
- Spanish: derramar (es), verter (es)
- Swedish: spilla (sv)
- Tamil: சிந்து (ta) (cintu), கொட்டு (ta) (koṭṭu)
- Ugaritic: 𐎌𐎔𐎋 (špk)
- Ukrainian: розлива́ти impf (rozlyváty), розли́ти pf (rozlýty)
- Walloon: stårer (wa), spåde (wa), rispåde (wa), rivierser (wa)
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intransitive: to spread out or fall out
transitive: to drop something that was intended to be caught
transitive: to mar; to damage; to destroy by misuse; to waste
transitive: to cause to flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed
Noun
spill (plural spills)
- (countable) A mess of something that has been dropped.
- A fall or stumble.
- The bruise is from a bad spill he had last week.
- 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.
- A slender piece of anything.
- A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask; a spile.
- A metallic rod or pin.
- (mining) One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.
- (sound recording) The situation where sound is picked up by a microphone from a source other than that which is intended.
- (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
- (Australian politics) A declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant, and open for re-election. Short form of leadership spill.
Quotations
Derived terms
Terms derived from the noun or verb spill
Translations
something that has been dropped
Anagrams
Gothic
Romanization
spill
- Romanization of 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐌻𐌻
Indonesian
Etymology
From English spill.
Verb
spill
- (slang) to spill a person's secret or disgrace
Luxembourgish
Verb
spill
- second-person singular imperative of spillen
Middle English
Etymology
From Old English spillan.
Verb
spill
- Alternative form of spillen
Norwegian Bokmål
Alternative forms
Etymology 1
From the verb spille.
Pronunciation
Noun
spill n (definite singular spillet, indefinite plural spill, definite plural spilla or spillene)
- 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.)
- play, playing
- ballen er ute av spill - the ball is out of play
- gambling; card-playing
- musical instrument (in compounds such as trekkspill (“accordion”))
- stage play
- flickering, play, sparkling (of flames, lights, colors, eyes, a smile)
Derived terms
See also
Etymology 2
Verb
spill
- imperative of spille
References
Swedish
Noun
spill n
- waste, unusable surplus material
- a spill (a mess of something spilled, dropped or leaked)
Declension
Verb
spill
- imperative of spilla