spill

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See also: Spill

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]

  • IPA(key): /spɪl/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Audio (AU)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪl

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.
  9. (transitive, Australia, politics) To open the leadership of a parliamentary party for re-election.

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

Quotations[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from the noun or verb spill

Translations[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Gothic[edit]

Romanization[edit]

spill

  1. Romanization of 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐌻𐌻

Luxembourgish[edit]

Verb[edit]

spill

  1. second-person singular imperative of spillen

Middle English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old English spillan.

Verb[edit]

spill

  1. Alternative form of spillen

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From the verb spille

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

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)
Derived terms[edit]

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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