spill

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”). 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”).

verb

1. (transitive) 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. (intransitive) To spread out or fall out, as above.
   Some sticky juice spilled onto the kitchen floor.
3. (transitive) 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. October 29, 2011, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport
4. To mar; to damage; to destroy by misuse; to waste.
   They [the colours] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship. 1589, George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie
5. (obsolete, intransitive) To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste.
6. (transitive) To cause to flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed.
7. (transitive, slang, obsolete) To cause to be thrown from a mount, a carriage, etc.
   Then, not thirty feet beyond, a sudden panicky lunge to the side by his horse spilled him from the saddle. 2007, Eric Flint, David Weber, 1634: The Baltic War
8. To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay.
9. (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.
10. (transitive, Australian politics) To open the leadership of a parliamentary party for re-election.
11. (transitive, intransitive) To reveal information to an uninformed party.
    He spilled his guts out to his new psychologist.
    ‘You wanted to know where we were going. Follow me. I’m going to spill it.’ 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 32
12. (of a knot) To come undone.

noun

1. (countable) A mess of something that has been dropped.
2. A fall or stumble.
   The bruise is from a bad spill he had last week.
3. A small stick or piece of paper used to light a candle, cigarette etc by the transfer of a flame from a fire.
   Kit froze with the pipe between his teeth, the relit spill pressed to the weed within it. 2008, Elizabeth Bear, Ink and Steel: A Novel of the Promethean Age
4. A slender piece of anything.
   1. A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask; a spile.
   2. A metallic rod or pin.
5. (mining) One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.
6. (sound recording) The situation where sound is picked up by a microphone from a source other than that which is intended.
7. (obsolete) A small sum of money.
   Spill or Sportule for the same from the credulous Laity
8. (Australian politics) A declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant, and open for re-election. Short form of leadership spill.