spill

verb

1. 1

   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. 2

   To spread out or fall out, as above.

   Some sticky juice spilled onto the kitchen floor.

   He was so topful of himself, that he let it spill on all the company.

3. 3

   To overflow out of a designated area.

   The crowd spilled onto Maple Avenue.

4. 4

   To drop something that was intended to be caught.

   That should have been that, but Hart caught a dose of the Hennessey wobbles and spilled Adlene Guedioura's long-range shot.

5. 5

   To mar; to damage; to destroy by misuse; to waste.

   They [the colours] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship.

   Spill not the morning (the quintessence of day) in recreations.

6. 6

   obsoleteTo be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste.

   That thou wilt suffer innocence to spill.

   This winter’s weather it waxeth cold, / And frost it freezeth on every hill, / And Boreas blows his blast so bold / That all our cattle are like to spill.

7. 7

   figurativeTo overflow or flow out, over or off something.

   Liverpool Street's 1985-92 remodelling by the British Rail Architects' Department (under project lead Nick Derbyshire) had carefully followed original 1870s detailing, with the concourse designed to allow natural light to spill into the station.

8. 8

   To cause or flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed.

   to revenge his Blood, ſo juſtly ſpilt, / VVhat is it leſs then to partake his guilt?

   The cracking sound, he explained, as far as I, a non-plumber, could understand, was the sound of the overworked, undermaintained and weirdly installed heating unit’s core rupturing and spilling water into the basement.

9. 9

   obsoleteTo cause to be thrown from a mount, a carriage, etc.

   Then, not thirty feet beyond, a sudden panicky lunge to the side by his horse spilled him from the saddle.

10. 10

    To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay.

    And all the others pavement were with yvory spilt

11. 11

    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.

12. 12

    To open the leadership of a parliamentary party for re-election.

13. 13

    To reveal information to an uninformed party.

    He spilled his guts out to his new psychologist.

    ‘You wanted to know where we were going. Follow me. I’m going to spill it.’

14. 14

    To come undone.

15. 15

    To express (something), especially repeatedly or floridly; to be expressed.

    He spilled insults about the other team.

    Praise spilled from him every day.

noun

1. 1

   Any thing that has been spilled; the resulting mess.

2. 2

   A fall or stumble.

   The bruise is from a bad spill he had last week.

3. 3

   archaicSynonym of taper, a thin stick, long wick, etc. used to transfer flame.

   “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.”

   Kit froze with the pipe between his teeth, the relit spill pressed to the weed within it.

4. 4

   A slender piece of anything. A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask'; a spile.

5. 5

   A slender piece of anything. A metallic rod or pin.

6. 6

   A slender piece of anything. A spillikin.

   A tool with which to extract the spills from the pile.

7. 7

   A slender piece of anything. A splinter caught in the skin.

8. 8

   One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.

9. 9

   The situation where sound is picked up by a microphone from a source other than that which is intended.

10. 10

    obsoleteA small sum of money.

    Spill or Sportule for the same from the credulous Laity

11. 11

    A declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant, and open for re-election. Short form of leadership spill.

Forms

plural

spills

past tense

spilled, spilt

past participle

spilled, spilt

present participle

spilling

third person singular

spills