spill

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English[edit]

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Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

Verb[edit]

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[1]:
      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.

Derived terms[edit]

Derived terms

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

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

Translations[edit]

Quotations[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from the noun or verb "spill"

Anagrams[edit]

Gothic[edit]

Romanization[edit]

spill

  1. Romanization of 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐌻𐌻

Luxembourgish[edit]

Verb[edit]

spill

  1. second-person singular imperative of spillen

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From the verb spille

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

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

  1. a game
  2. play
    ballen er ute av spill - the ball is out of play
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from spill

See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Verb[edit]

spill

  1. imperative of spille

References[edit]

Swedish[edit]

Noun[edit]

spill n

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

Declension[edit]

Declension of spill 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative spill spillet spill spillen
Genitive spills spillets spills spillens

Verb[edit]

spill

  1. imperative of spilla.
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