spill

Etymology

From Middle English spillen, from Old English spillan, spildan (“to kill, destroy, waste”), 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 spille (“to spill, waste”), Swedish spilla (“to spill, waste”), Icelandic spilla (“to contaminate, spoil”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɪl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪl

Verb

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.

   • Isaac Watts

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

3. (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.

4. To mar; to damage; to destroy by misuse; to waste.
   • Puttenham

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

   • Fuller

     Spill not the morning, the quintessence of day, in recreations.

5. (obsolete) To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste.
   • Chaucer

     That thou wilt suffer innocents to spill.

6. To cause to flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed.
   • Dryden

     to revenge his blood so justly spilt

7. To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

8. (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.

Noun

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.
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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ayliffe to this entry?)

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

Anagrams

• pills

Romanization

spill

1. Romanization of 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐌻𐌻

Verb

spill

1. second-person singular imperative of spillen

Etymology

From Old English spillan.

Verb

spill

1. Alternative form of spillen

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɪl/
• Rhymes: -ɪl

Etymology 1

From the verb spille

Etymology 2

References

• “spill” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Noun

spill n

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

Verb

spill

1. imperative of spilla.