spill

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To accidentally let liquid or a substance flow out of its container.

   I spilled some juice on the kitchen floor.

2. 2
   verb

   To flow or fall out and spread over an area.

   The crowd spilled out of the stadium onto the street.

3. 3
   noun

   An amount of liquid that has been spilled, or the act of spilling.

   There was a huge oil spill off the coast last summer.

4. 4
   noun

   A sudden fall, especially from a bike or while moving.

   I had a nasty spill on the ice this morning.

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.

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