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.

Multiword verbs with spill

• spill over Phrasal verb A2

  to overflow from an area into surrounding space

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Spill comes from Old English spillan, originally “kill” or “destroy,” and it also acquired the sense “shed,” especially of blood. The modern meaning “allow liquid to pour out” developed from this latter sense in late Middle English.

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.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary