spill

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“
But Smith and other residents say the spill was a staggering blow for a town so reliant on commercial fishing, particularly for herring, whose numbers plummeted several years after the spill and have yet to return.

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Definitions (55)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (17)

  1. transitive verb To cause or allow (a substance) to run or fall out of a container.
  2. transitive verb To scatter (objects) from containment: spilled the armload of books on the desk.
  3. transitive verb To shed (blood).
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (24)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (10)

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Examples (49)

  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said sediment and water samples from near the spill were above federal maximums for contaminants.
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said sediment and water samples from near the spill were above federal maximums for contaminants. —  WTOP / Business / Biz Stories
  • The consequences of the spill were epic and continue to this day, impacting the environment and the economy. —  Democracy Now!
  • The consequences of the spill were epic and continue to this day. —  Democracy Now!
  • It may be cleaned off if the spill is caught quickly, but if it lingers, it is not at all easy to wash out of clothes, linens or other fabrics. —  Epinions Recent Content for Home
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This word has been looked up 135 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

contamination ·  leak ·  splash ·  pollution ·  flood ·  stain ·  droplet ·  smear ·  spray ·  drain ·  wash ·  flare

Used in the same contextWord Family

spill:   spills ·  spilled ·  spilling
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English spillen, to shed blood, to spill, from Old English spillan, to kill.
  2. Middle English spille.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English spillen, spyllen (preterit spilde, past participle spilled, spilt), from Anglo-Saxon spillan, an assimilated form of spildan, destroy (for-spildan, destroy utterly), = Old Saxon spildjan, destroy, kill, = Dutch spillen = Middle Low German spilden, spillen, Low German spillen, waste, spend, = OHG, spildan, waste, spend, = Icelandic spilla, destroy, = Swedish spilla = Danish spilde, lose, spill, waste; cf. Anglo-Saxon spild, destruction; perhaps connected with spald, split, speld, splinter, etc: see spald, spill, spell.
  2. from spill, v.
  3. Early modern English also spil, spille; from Middle English spille; a variant of spell, q. v. In some senses, as def. 4, prob. confused with spile, from Dutch spijl, a bar, stake, etc., also (in def. 5) with D. spil, later G. spille, a pin, pivot, spindle: see spile.
  4. from spill, n.
 

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/spɪl/
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