spill
//spɪl//
Forms
- present (v1)
- spill
- past (v2)
- spilled
- past participle (v3)
- spilled
- present participle
- spilling
- 3rd person singular
- spills
- Plural
- spills
Definitions
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.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.To overflow out of a designated area.
- The crowd spilled onto Maple Avenue.
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.
1.A fall or stumble.
- The bruise is from a bad spill he had last week.
2.A slender piece of anything.
- A tool with which to extract the spills from the pile.
3.One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.
4.Any thing that has been spilled; the resulting mess.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3934
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
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”).