DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
3.147.193.141

Search for:
[Show options]
[Pronunciation] [Help] [Database Info] [Server Info]

1 definition found

From: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

 Spill v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spilled or Spilt p. pr. & vb. n. Spilling.]
 1. To destroy; to kill; to put an end to. [Obs.]
 And gave him to the queen, all at her will
 To choose whether she would him save or spill.   --Chaucer.
    Greater glory think [it] to save than spill.   --Spenser.
 2. To mar; to injure; to deface; hence, to destroy by misuse; to waste. [Obs.]
    They [the colors] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship.   --Puttenham.
    Spill not the morning, the quintessence of day, in recreations.   --Fuller.
 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.
 Note: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.   --Dryden.
 5. Naut. 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.
 Spilling line Naut., a rope used for spilling, or dislodging, the wind from the belly of a sail.