What does spoil mean?
Definitions for spoil
spɔɪlspoil
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word spoil.
Princeton's WordNet
spoilnoun
(usually plural) valuables taken by violence (especially in war)
"to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy"
spoil, spoiling, spoilagenoun
the act of spoiling something by causing damage to it
"her spoiling my dress was deliberate"
spoil, spoliation, spoilation, despoilation, despoilment, despoliationverb
the act of stripping and taking by force
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"
spoil, go badverb
become unfit for consumption or use
"the meat must be eaten before it spoils"
corrupt, spoilverb
alter from the original
pamper, featherbed, cosset, cocker, baby, coddle, mollycoddle, spoil, indulgeverb
treat with excessive indulgence
"grandparents often pamper the children"; "Let's not mollycoddle our students!"
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"
itch, spoilverb
have a strong desire or urge to do something
"She is itching to start the project"; "He is spoiling for a fight"
rape, spoil, despoil, violate, plunderverb
destroy and strip of its possession
"The soldiers raped the beautiful country"
mar, impair, spoil, deflower, vitiateverb
make imperfect
"nothing marred her beauty"
Wiktionary
spoilnoun
(Also in plural: spoils) Plunder taken from an enemy or victim.
spoilnoun
Material (such as rock or earth) removed in the course of an excavation, or in mining or dredging. Tailings.
spoilverb
To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of their arms or armour.
spoilverb
To strip or deprive (someone) of their possessions; to rob, despoil.
spoilverb
To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.).
spoilverb
To carry off (goods) by force; to steal.
spoilverb
To ruin; to damage (something) in some way making it unfit for use.
spoilverb
To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess.
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.
spoilverb
To render (a ballot paper) invalid by deliberately defacing it.
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.
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
Spoilnoun
Etymology: spolium, Latin.
The cry of Talbot serves me for a sword;
For I have loaden me with many spoils,
Using no other weapon but his name. William Shakespeare, Hen. VI.Where the cleaver chops the heifer’s spoil,
Thy breathing nostril hold. John Gay, Trivia.The man that hath not musick in himself,
Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. William Shakespeare.Go and speed!
Havock, and spoil, and ruin are my gain. John Milton, Parad. Lost.Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me. William Shakespeare.
Snakes, the rather for the casting of their spoil, live ’till they be old. Francis Bacon.
To SPOILverb
Etymology: spolio, Latin; spolier, French.
Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven an enduring substance. Heb.
This mount
With all his verdure spoil’d, and trees adrift. John Milton.Yielding themselves upon the Turks faith, for the safeguard of their liberty and goods, they were most injuriously spoiled of all that they had. Richard Knolles, History of the Turks.
Thou shalt not gain what I deny to yield,
Nor reap the harvest, though thou spoil’st the field. Matthew Prior.My sons their old unhappy sire despise,
Spoil’d of his kingdom, and depriv’d of eyes. Alexander Pope.Beware lest any man spoil you, through philosophy and vain deceit. Col. ii. 8.
Spiritual pride spoils many graces. Taylor.
To Spoilverb
England was infested with robbers and outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used often to break forth to rob and spoil. Edmund Spenser, on Ireland.
They which hate us spoil for themselves. Ps. xliv. 14.
He that gathered a hundred bushels of acorns, or apples, had thereby a property in them: he was only to look that he used them before they spoiled, else he robbed others. John Locke.
ChatGPT
spoil
To impair or diminish the quality or value of something, often to the point where it is no longer usable or enjoyable. This can refer to food becoming unfit for consumption, material goods getting damaged, or even abstract concepts like a surprise being ruined.
Webster Dictionary
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
Spoilverb
to seize by violence;; to take by force; to plunder
Spoilverb
to cause to decay and perish; to corrput; to vitiate; to mar
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
Spoilverb
to practice plunder or robbery
Spoilverb
to lose the valuable qualities; to be corrupted; to decay; as, fruit will soon spoil in warm weather
Spoilnoun
that which is taken from another by violence; especially, the plunder taken from an enemy; pillage; booty
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
Spoilnoun
that which is gained by strength or effort
Spoilnoun
the act or practice of plundering; robbery; aste
Spoilnoun
corruption; cause of corruption
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
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
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.]
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
British National Corpus
Verbs Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'spoil' in Verbs Frequency: #869
Anagrams for spoil »
polis
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of spoil in Chaldean Numerology is: 4
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of spoil in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8
Examples of spoil in a Sentence
The only thing that can spoil a day is people and if you can keep from making engagements, every day has no limits.
Golf has too much walking to be a good game, and just enough game to spoil a good walk.
You may share the labours of the great, but you may not share the spoil.
Condescending. We dont want to spoil anything, we want to take care of our own, and they are great teams. But we expect to play with them and compete with them and win those games. Thats why were here. We are not looking to spoil anything.
You could buy your kids two presents and still have a little terror. My kids know the difference between right and wrong and they appreciate everything they get and they don’t get (spoiled) throughout the year. i’m not rich at all, which is the first thing I wanted to point out because it’s been put all over the Internet after it had been taken from Instagram that I was rich and I spoil my children.
Popularity rank by frequency of use
Translations for spoil
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- غنيمةArabic
- espoliarCatalan, Valencian
- lup, kořist, zkazit, rozmazlitCzech
- Beute, ruinieren, verderben, verwöhnenGerman
- αλλοιώνω, καλομαθαίνω, χαλάω, κόβω, μυρίζω, προδίδω, λάφυρο, λεία, μπάζα, καταστρέφω, αμαυρώνω, κακομαθαίνω, αλλοιώνομαι, ξινίζω, μαρτυράωGreek
- botín, agriar, despojar, dañar, echar a perder, estropear, chiquear, descomponerse, echarse a perder, espoliar, arruinar, malcriar, consentirSpanish
- از بین بردنPersian
- ryöstösaalis, sotasaalis, jätemaa, louhe, hemmotella, hapantua, mädäntyä, saalis, jätemassa, pilata, ruoppausmassa, lelliä, pilaantua, mädätäFinnish
- butin, gâter, dépouille, gâcher, tournerFrench
- millIrish
- התקלקל, שללHebrew
- gateHaitian Creole
- megsavanyodik, elkényeztet, megromlik, zsákmány, rongál, tönkreteszHungarian
- domajarIdo
- rovinare, bottino, viziareItalian
- 略奪品, 利権, 傷める, こわす, 甘やかす, 廃棄物, 傷つける, だめ, 台無し, 腐るJapanese
- kōpekaMāori
- verbrodden, verwennen, bederven, buit, verprutsenDutch
- pilhagem, saque, arruinar, butim, estragar, mimarPortuguese
- răsfăța, pradă, strica, ruinaRomanian
- испортить, повреждать, баловать, избаловать, испортиться, трофей, портить, повредить, прокиснуть, скиснутьRussian
- byte, fördärvaSwedish
- பாழ்Tamil
- పాడుTelugu
- bozulmak, çürümek, yağma, mahvetmek, üzerine titremekTurkish
- псуватиUkrainian
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"spoil." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 29 Nov. 2023. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/spoil>.
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