English Explanatory Dictionary

spill

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to accidentally pour.
  2. To spread out or fall out, as above.
  3. To overflow out of a designated area.
  4. To drop something that was intended to be caught.
  5. To mar; to damage; to destroy by misuse; to waste.
  6. To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste.
  7. To overflow or flow out, over or off something.
  8. To cause or flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed.
  9. To cause to be thrown from a mount, a carriage, etc.
  10. To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay.
  11. 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. To open the leadership of a parliamentary party for re-election.
noun
  1. Any thing that has been spilled; the resulting mess.
  2. A fall or stumble.
  3. Synonym of taper, a thin stick, long wick, etc. used to transfer flame.
  4. A slender piece of anything.
  5. A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask'; a spile.
  6. A metallic rod or pin.
  7. A spillikin.
  8. A splinter caught in the skin.
  9. One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.
  10. The situation where sound is picked up by a microphone from a source other than that which is intended.
  11. A small sum of money.
  12. A declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant, and open for re-election. Short form of leadership spill.

Pronunciation

/spɪl/ [spɪɫ] [spɪo̯] [spɪʊ̯] en-us-spill.ogg en-au-spill.ogg

Word forms

spill spills spilling spilled spilt

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”). See also spool.

Synonyms

taper

Derived words

antispill cry over spilt milk forspill nonspill oil spill prespill spillable spillage spillback spill blood spiller spill ink spillionaire spill juice spill kit spill one's guts spill one's guts out spill one's seed spill out spill over spillover spillproof spill the beans spill the tea spill vase spillway spilly spilth spilt milk take a spill there's no point crying over spilt milk there's no use crying over spilt milk unspill unspilled
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