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.
    • 1741, Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind
      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.
  5. (obsolete) To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste.
    • (Can we date this quote by Chaucer and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      That thou wilt suffer innocents to spill.
  6. To cause to flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed.
  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, Australian politics) To open the leadership of a parliamentary party for re-election.
  10. (transitive) To reveal information to an uninformed party.
    • 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.’
    He spilled his guts out to his new psychologist.
  11. (of a knot). To come undone.

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. (Australian 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]
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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