spill
[spɪɫ]
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.84 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to accidentally pour.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "I spilled some sticky juice on the kitchen floor."
- "Some sticky juice spilled onto the kitchen floor."
- "He was so topful of himself, that he let it spill on all the company."
- "The crowd spilled onto Maple Avenue."
- "That should have been that, but Hart caught a dose of the Hennessey wobbles and spilled Adlene Guedioura's long-range shot."
- "They [the colours] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship."
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”). See also spool.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: [spɪɫ]
- British English: [spɪɫ]