spoil
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
Etymology: Etymology tree
Latin spolium
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti
Proto-Italic *-āō
Latin -ō
Latin spoliāre
Old French espoillierbor.
Middle English spoilen
English spoil
From Middle English spoilen, spuylen, borrowed from Old French espoillier, espollier, espuler, from Latin spoliō, spoliāre (“pillage, ruin, spoil”).
Inflected forms:
form: spoils
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: spoiling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: spoiled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: spoiled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: spoilt
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: spoilt
pos: verb
tags: past
form: spoils
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of arms or armour.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
gloss: To strip or deprive (someone) of possessions; to rob, despoil.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: All that herde hym wer amased and sayde: ys nott this he that spoylled them whych called on this name in Jerusalem?
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.
Roger, that rich Bishop of Salisbury,[…]spoiled of his goods by King Stephen, […]through grief ran mad, spoke and did he knew not what.
gloss: To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.).
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
archaic
examples: Outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil.
gloss: To carry off (goods) by force; to steal.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man.
They must likewise endeavour to be careful in looking after the rest of the Servants, that every one perform their duty in their several places, that they keep good hours in their up-rising and lying down, and that no Goods be either spoiled or embezelled.
[…] it was her own knife; little sister Mary had left it to her upon her deathbed, and she ought to have had it to keep herself long ago. But mama kept it from her, and was always letting Betsey get hold of it; and the end of it would be that Betsey would spoil it, and get it for her own, though mama had promised her that Betsey should not have it in her own hands.
There is hardly a trace of metal left in the Palace at Knossos. In one corner only, on the north-west, a friendly floor level seems to have sunk just before the plunderers entered it, and hidden from their view five splendid bronze vessels. They are all that remain to us […] to tell us what the gold and silver work was like that was spoiled from Knossos.
gloss: To ruin; to damage in such a way as to make undesirable or unusable.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: All this sun spoils me for vacations in the far North.
Spiritual pride […] spoils so many graces.
"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. […]"
‘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.’
gloss: To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To go bad; to become sour or rancid; to decay.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Make sure you put the milk back in the fridge; otherwise it will spoil.
gloss: To render (a ballot) invalid by deliberately defacing.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To prematurely reveal major events or the ending of (a story etc.); to ruin (a surprise) by exposing ahead of time as a spoiler.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: These include a brief but showstopping (and trailer-revealed) scene where Vanellope crashes a Disney Princess reunion, packed with gags and references that should send both young and old fans into paroxysms of glee. The princess confab also leads into a scene featuring Vanellope and the cast of Slaughter Race that probably shouldn’t be spoiled.
gloss: To reduce the lift generated by an airplane or wing by deflecting air upwards, usually with a spoiler.
pos: verb
gloss: To be very eager (for something).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Senator Toombs who announced his readiness to whip Great Britain [...] has been spoiling for a fight ever since
gloss: Plunder taken from an enemy or victim.
pos: noun
examples: Thoſe thouſand horſe shall ſweat with martiall ſpoyle
Of conquered kingdomes, and of Cities ſackt, […]
gloss: The act of taking plunder from an enemy or victim; spoliation, pillage, rapine.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: This countrey ſwarmes with vile outragious men,
That liue by rapine and by lawleſſe ſpoile,
Fit ſouldiers for the wicked Tamburlaine.
gloss: Material (such as rock or earth) removed in the course of an excavation, or in mining or dredging. Tailings. Such material could be utilised somewhere else.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: In view of the decline in freight traffic, it was strange to hear from Mr. Lambert that there is "a continuing problem of supplying, particularly for the civil engineer, the number of wagons required for carrying construction materials and spoil for various works."
Synonyms: ball up
blight
bumble
botch
bugger up
bungle
contaminate
corrupt
crab
deprave
disrupt
disturb
foil
fuck up
jack up
mar
mess up
mishandle
mommick
pollute
put a crimp in
queer
screw up
soil
sour
spoil
stain
undo
upset
turn upside down
upset the applecart
vitiate
Antonyms: aid
cultivate
foster
nurture
support
sustain
uphold
prop up
hold up
bolster
Related words: despoil
spoilsport
spoilage
spoils of war
spoilt
too many cooks spoil the broth
Derived words: one bad apple can spoil the barrel
one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch
Q-spoil
spare the rod and spoil the child
spoilability
spoilable
spoilee
spoilfive
spoilful
spoiling for a fight
spoil market
spoil-paper
spoilsome
spoil somebody rotten
spoil someone rotten
spoilsport
spoil the market
spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar
spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar
too many chefs spoil the broth
too many cooks spoil the soup
too many cooks spoil the stew
unspoil
you must spoil before you spin
spoiler
spoil heap
spoilless
Translations: