spill
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /spɪl/
ipa: [spɪɫ]
note: l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [spɪo̯]
note: l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [spɪʊ̯]
rhymes: -ɪl
Forms: form: spills
Etymology: From Middle English spillen, from Old English spillan, spildan (“to kill, destroy, waste”), from Proto-West Germanic *spilþijan, 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 spilde (“to spill, waste”), Swedish spilla (“to spill, waste”), Icelandic spilla (“to contaminate, spoil”). See also spool.
Senses: glosses: A mess of something that has been dropped.
examples: text: The bruise is from a bad spill he had last week.
glosses: A fall or stumble.
examples: text: “In a moment, he has torn the letter into long thin strips, and rolling them up into spills he thrusts them hurriedly in amongst the other spills in the vase on the mantle-piece.”
ref: 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 182:
text: Kit froze with the pipe between his teeth, the relit spill pressed to the weed within it.
ref: 2008, Elizabeth Bear, Ink and Steel: A Novel of the Promethean Age:
glosses: A small stick or piece of paper used to light a candle, cigarette etc by the transfer of a flame from a fire.
glosses: A slender piece of anything.
A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask'; a spile.
glosses: A slender piece of anything.
A metallic rod or pin.
examples: text: A tool with which to extract the spills from the pile.
ref: 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 125:
glosses: A slender piece of anything.
A spillikin.
glosses: A slender piece of anything.
A splinter caught in the skin.
topics: business
mining
glosses: One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.
qualifier: sound recording
glosses: The situation where sound is picked up by a microphone from a source other than that which is intended.
examples: text: Spill or Sportule for the same from the credulous Laity
ref: 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe […], →OCLC:
glosses: A small sum of money.
topics: government
politics
glosses: A declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant, and open for re-election. Short form of leadership spill.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from the noun or verb spill
word: oil spill
sense: Terms derived from the noun or verb spill
word: spill kit
sense: Terms derived from the noun or verb spill
word: spill one's seed
sense: Terms derived from the noun or verb spill
word: spill vase
sense: Terms derived from the noun or verb spill
word: spillway
sense: Terms derived from the noun or verb spill
word: spilth
sense: Terms derived from the noun or verb spill
word: take a spill