Spill
Spill (spil) , noun
[r170. Compare Spell a splinter.]
1.
A bit of wood split off; a splinter. [Obsolete or Provincial English]
2.
A slender piece of anything.
(a)
A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask; a spile.
(b)
A metallic rod or pin.
(c)
A small roll of paper, or slip of wood, used as a lamplighter, etc.
(d)
(Mining) One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead on top of a set of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.
3.
A little sum of money. [Obsolete] — Ayliffe
Spill (spilt) , transitive verb
To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay. [Obsolete] — Spenser
Spill (spil) , transitive verb
[Old English spillen, usually, to destroy, Anglo-Saxon spillan, spildan, to destroy; akin to Icelandic spilla to destroy, Swedish spilla to spill, Danish spilde, LG. & Dutch spillen to squander, Old High German spildan.]
1.
To destroy; to kill; to put an end to. [Obsolete]
And gave him to the queen, all at her will
To choose whether she would him save or spill.
Greater glory think [it] to save than spill.
2.
To mar; to injure; to deface; hence, to destroy by misuse; to waste. [Obsolete]
They [the colors] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship.
Spill not the morning, the quintessence of day, in recreations.
3.
To suffer to fall or run out of a vessel; to lose, or suffer to be scattered; -- applied to fluids and to substances whose particles are small and loose; as, to spill water from a pail; to spill quicksilver from a vessel; to spill powder from a paper; to spill sand or flour.
Spill differs from pour in expressing accidental loss, -- a loss or waste contrary to purpose.
4.
To cause to flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed, or suffer to be shed, as in battle or in manslaughter; as, a man spills another's blood, or his own blood.
And to revenge his blood so justly spilt.
5.
(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.
Collocations (1)
Spilling line (Nautical) , a rope used for spilling, or dislodging, the wind from the belly of a sail. — Totten
Spill , intransitive verb
1.
To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste. [Obsolete]
That thou wilt suffer innocents to spill.
2.
To be shed; to run over; to fall out, and be lost or wasted.
He was so topful of himself, that he let it spill on all the company.