Definitions for spoil
spɔɪlspoil

Princeton's WordNet(3.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. spoilnoun

   (usually plural) valuables taken by violence (especially in war)

   "to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy"

2. spoil, spoiling, spoilagenoun

   the act of spoiling something by causing damage to it

   "her spoiling my dress was deliberate"

3. spoil, spoliation, spoilation, despoilation, despoilment, despoliationverb

   the act of stripping and taking by force

4. botch, bodge, bumble, fumble, botch up, muff, blow, flub, screw up, ball up, spoil, muck up, bungle, fluff, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, bobble, mishandle, louse up, foul up, mess up, fuck upverb

   make a mess of, destroy or ruin

   "I botched the dinner and we had to eat out"; "the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement"

5. spoil, go badverb

   become unfit for consumption or use

   "the meat must be eaten before it spoils"

6. corrupt, spoilverb

   alter from the original

7. pamper, featherbed, cosset, cocker, baby, coddle, mollycoddle, spoil, indulgeverb

   treat with excessive indulgence

   "grandparents often pamper the children"; "Let's not mollycoddle our students!"

8. thwart, queer, spoil, scotch, foil, cross, frustrate, baffle, bilkverb

   hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of

   "What ultimately frustrated every challenger was Ruth's amazing September surge"; "foil your opponent"

9. itch, spoilverb

   have a strong desire or urge to do something

   "She is itching to start the project"; "He is spoiling for a fight"

10. rape, spoil, despoil, violate, plunderverb

    destroy and strip of its possession

    "The soldiers raped the beautiful country"

11. mar, impair, spoil, deflower, vitiateverb

    make imperfect

    "nothing marred her beauty"

Wiktionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. spoilnoun

   (Also in plural: spoils) Plunder taken from an enemy or victim.

   Etymology: From espoillier, from spoliare, present active infinitive of spolio.

2. spoilnoun

   Material (such as rock or earth) removed in the course of an excavation, or in mining or dredging. Tailings.

   Etymology: From espoillier, from spoliare, present active infinitive of spolio.

3. spoilverb

   To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of their arms or armour.

   Etymology: From espoillier, from spoliare, present active infinitive of spolio.

4. spoilverb

   To strip or deprive (someone) of their possessions; to rob, despoil.

   Etymology: From espoillier, from spoliare, present active infinitive of spolio.

5. spoilverb

   To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.).

   Etymology: From espoillier, from spoliare, present active infinitive of spolio.

6. spoilverb

   To carry off (goods) by force; to steal.

   Etymology: From espoillier, from spoliare, present active infinitive of spolio.

7. spoilverb

   To ruin; to damage (something) in some way making it unfit for use.

   Etymology: From espoillier, from spoliare, present active infinitive of spolio.

8. spoilverb

   To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess.

   Etymology: From espoillier, from spoliare, present active infinitive of spolio.

9. spoilverb

   Of food, to become bad, sour or rancid; to decay.

   Make sure you put the milk back in the fridge, otherwise it will spoil.

   Etymology: From espoillier, from spoliare, present active infinitive of spolio.

10. spoilverb

    To render (a ballot paper) invalid by deliberately defacing it.

    Etymology: From espoillier, from spoliare, present active infinitive of spolio.

11. spoilverb

    To reveal the ending of (a story etc.); to ruin (a surprise) by exposing it ahead of time.

    Etymology: From espoillier, from spoliare, present active infinitive of spolio.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Spoilverb

   to plunder; to strip by violence; to pillage; to rob; -- with of before the name of the thing taken; as, to spoil one of his goods or possession

   Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

2. Spoilverb

   to seize by violence;; to take by force; to plunder

   Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

3. Spoilverb

   to cause to decay and perish; to corrput; to vitiate; to mar

   Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

4. Spoilverb

   to render useless by injury; to injure fatally; to ruin; to destroy; as, to spoil paper; to have the crops spoiled by insects; to spoil the eyes by reading

   Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

5. Spoilverb

   to practice plunder or robbery

   Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

6. Spoilverb

   to lose the valuable qualities; to be corrupted; to decay; as, fruit will soon spoil in warm weather

   Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

7. Spoilnoun

   that which is taken from another by violence; especially, the plunder taken from an enemy; pillage; booty

   Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

8. Spoilnoun

   public offices and their emoluments regarded as the peculiar property of a successful party or faction, to be bestowed for its own advantage; -- commonly in the plural; as to the victor belong the spoils

   Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

9. Spoilnoun

   that which is gained by strength or effort

   Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

10. Spoilnoun

    the act or practice of plundering; robbery; aste

    Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

11. Spoilnoun

    corruption; cause of corruption

    Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

12. Spoilnoun

    the slough, or cast skin, of a serpent or other animal

    Etymology: [F. spolier, OF. espoillier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil. Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Spoil

   In Archaeology, spoil is the term used for the soil, dirt and rubble that results from an excavation, and discarded off site on spoil heaps. These heaps are commonly accessed by barrow runs.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Spoil

   spoil, v.t. to take by force: to plunder.—v.i. to practise robbery.—n. prey, plunder: pillage: robbery.—n. Spoil′er, one who spoils, a plunderer.—n.pl. Spō′lia opī′ma, the most valued spoils—taken by a Roman commander from the enemy's commander in single combat; hence supreme rewards or honours generally. [O. Fr. espoille—L. spolium, spoil.]

2. Spoil

   spoil, v.t. to corrupt: to mar: to make useless.—v.i. to decay: to become useless.—ns. Spoil′er, a corrupter; Spoil′-five, a round game of cards played with the whole pack, each one of the three to ten players receiving five cards.—adj. Spoil′ful (Spens.), wasteful, rapacious.—n. Spoils′man, one who looks for profit out of politics. [Same as above word.]

Matched Categories

1. • Desire
   • Injury
   • Prevent
   • Stolen Property

British National Corpus

1. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'spoil' in Verbs Frequency: #869

Anagrams for spoil »

1. polis

How to pronounce spoil?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say spoil in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of spoil in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of spoil in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of spoil in a Sentence

1. Dr. Urooj Umer:

   Don't let others to spoil your inner peace and don't allow yourself to pluck your fortitude by rot raps of anyone...

2. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu:

   Turkey will be supporting any initiative for a political solution in Syria, except the only criteria we want is that the moderate opposition should be represented by their own will and initiative. There should not be any representation of terrorist groups around the table, some circles, including Russia, they want to spoil the opposition side, putting some other elements in the opposition side like the YPG, which has been collaborating with the regime and attacking the moderate opposition.

3. Leon Gissing:

   I was obsessed, i wanted to have all of the latest shoes and all of the latest designer or Hyped or new models, and it was a case of obviously my parents weren't going to spoil me and buy me whatever I wanted, so I just needed to get a bit of extra capital, a bit of extra cash to be able to afford my own pairs of shoes.

4. Jeffery Lewis:

   The telltale sign is the pile of spoil in front of the tunnel. That's rock from inside the mountain as they dig the new tunnel.

5. David Pilgrim:

   And, then, the old man preached about the daily indignities of the old south— insulting stereotypes and caricatures that portrayed us as buffoons, butlers, and beasts; lies about our morality and worth, some told by preachers who said we had no souls, that we wore the Curse of Ham; backbreaking toil, often forced by law, the fruit of our labor on another man’s plate; poverty that warped, crippled, and everywhere premature death; our voices silenced by poll taxes and literacy tests; schooling in raggedy shacks with tattered books because education would spoil us for work in the fields; cuffed, chained, and caged, for crimes both real and imagined; our soldiers killed in their uniforms, their medals stripped; our businesses, churches, schools, and homes burned to the ground when we progressed too much; our women and children raped; everywhere the barbarism of color discrimination followed us, enveloped us, and when all else failed, there were sadistic cowards with ropes and pyres to kill us, kill our bodies, to try and end us. But, we did not end.

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