spill

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”).

• IPA^(key): /spɪl/

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• Rhymes: -ɪl

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:

     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, Australian politics) To open the leadership of a parliamentary party for re-election.
10. (transitive) To reveal information to an uninformed party.

    He spilled his guts out to his new psychologist.

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.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:spill.

• pills

spill

1. Romanization of 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐌻𐌻

spill

1. second-person singular imperative of spillen

From Old English spillan.

spill

1. Alternative form of spillen

• spell

From the verb spille

• IPA^(key): /spɪl/
• Rhymes: -ɪl

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)

• spel (Nynorsk)

spill

1. imperative of spille

• “spill” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

spill n

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

spill

1. imperative of spilla.