Definitions for spoil
spɔɪlspoil

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:3.0 / 1 vote

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"

WiktionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. spoilnoun

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

2. spoilnoun

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

3. spoilverb

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

4. spoilverb

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

5. spoilverb

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

6. spoilverb

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

7. spoilverb

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

8. spoilverb

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

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.

10. spoilverb

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

11. spoilverb

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

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

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Spoilnoun

   Etymology: spolium, Latin.

   1. That which is taken by violence; that which is taken from an enemy; plunder; pillage; booty.

   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.

   2. The act of robbery; robbery; waste.

   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.

   3. Corruption; cause of corruption.

   Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me. William Shakespeare.

   4. The slough; the cast-off skin of a serpent.

   Snakes, the rather for the casting of their spoil, live ’till they be old. Francis Bacon.

2. To SPOILverb

   Etymology: spolio, Latin; spolier, French.

   1. To rob; to take away by force.

   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.

   2. To plunder; to strip of goods.

   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.

   3. To corrupt; to mar; to make useless. [This is properly spill, spillan , Saxon.]

   Beware lest any man spoil you, through philosophy and vain deceit. Col. ii. 8.

   Spiritual pride spoils many graces. Taylor.

3. To Spoilverb

   1. To practice robbery or plunder.

   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.

   2. To grow useless; to be corrupted.

   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.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. 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 DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

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

2. Spoilverb

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

3. Spoilverb

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

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

5. Spoilverb

   to practice plunder or robbery

6. Spoilverb

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

7. Spoilnoun

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

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

9. Spoilnoun

   that which is gained by strength or effort

10. Spoilnoun

    the act or practice of plundering; robbery; aste

11. Spoilnoun

    corruption; cause of corruption

12. Spoilnoun

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

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

FreebaseRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

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 DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

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. Ernest Hemingway:

   The only thing that can spoil a day is people and if you can keep from making engagements, every day has no limits.

2. Harry Leon Wilson:

   Golf has too much walking to be a good game, and just enough game to spoil a good walk.

3. Aesop:

   You may share the labours of the great, but you may not share the spoil.

4. Jimbo Fisher:

   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.

5. The Sun:

   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.

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