spoil
Contents
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English spoilen, spuylen, from Old French espoillier, espollier, espuler, from Latin spoliāre, present active infinitive of spoliō (“pillage, ruin, spoil”).
Pronunciation[edit]
- Rhymes: -ɔɪl
Verb[edit]
spoil (third-person singular simple present spoils, present participle spoiling, simple past and past participle spoiled or spoilt)
- (transitive, archaic) To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of their arms or armour. [from 14th c.]
- (transitive, archaic) To strip or deprive (someone) of their possessions; to rob, despoil. [from 14th c.]
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts 9:21:
- All that herde hym wer amased and sayde: ys nott this he that spoylled them whych called on this name in Jerusalem?
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VII:
- To do her dye (quoth Vna) were despight, / And shame t'auenge so weake an enimy; / But spoile her of her scarlot robe, and let her fly.
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1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy, 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):, I.2.4.vii:
- Roger, that rich Bishop of Salisbury, […] spoiled of his goods by King Stephen, […] through grief ran mad, spoke and did he knew not what.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts 9:21:
- (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.). [from 14th c.]
- Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)
- Outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil.
- Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)
- (transitive, obsolete) To carry off (goods) by force; to steal. [14th-19th c.]
- (transitive) To ruin; to damage (something) in some way making it unfit for use. [from 16th c.]
- Jeremy Taylor (1613–1677)
- Spiritual pride spoils many graces.
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1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen, OCLC 12026604; republished New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919, OCLC 491297620:
- "I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. […]"
- 2011, ‘What the Arab papers say’, The Economist, 5 Aug 2011:
- ‘This is a great day for us. Let us not spoil it by saying the wrong thing, by promoting a culture of revenge, or by failing to treat the former president with respect.’
- Jeremy Taylor (1613–1677)
- (transitive) To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess. [from 17th c.]
- (intransitive) Of food, to become bad, sour or rancid; to decay. [from 17th c.]
- Make sure you put the milk back in the fridge, otherwise it will spoil.
- (transitive) To render (a ballot paper) invalid by deliberately defacing it. [from 19th c.]
- 2003, David Nicoll, The Guardian, letter:
- Dr Jonathan Grant (Letters, April 22) feels the best way to show his disaffection with political parties over Iraq is to spoil his ballot paper.
- 2003, David Nicoll, The Guardian, letter:
- (transitive) To reveal the ending of (a story etc.); to ruin (a surprise) by exposing it ahead of time.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
ruin
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to coddle or pamper
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become sour or rancid, to decay
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reveal the ending
Noun[edit]
spoil (plural spoils)
- (Also in plural: spoils) Plunder taken from an enemy or victim.
- (uncountable) Material (such as rock or earth) removed in the course of an excavation, or in mining or dredging. Tailings.
Synonyms[edit]
- (plunder taken from an enemy or victim): For semantic relationships of this sense, see booty in the Thesaurus.
- (material moved): gangue, slag, tailings
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
plunder taken from an enemy or victim
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material moved
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
See also[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with archaic senses
- English intransitive verbs
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- English nouns
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- English uncountable nouns