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Webster's New World College Dictionary » spilling
spilling
Variant of spill
spill
definition
spill (spil)
transitive verb spilled or spilt, spilling spill′·ing
- to allow or cause, esp. unintentionally or accidentally, to run, fall, or flow over from a container, usually so as to result in loss or waste who spilled the milk?
- to shed (blood)
- to empty the wind from (a sail)
- to lessen the pressure of (wind) on a sail
- to scatter at random from a receptacle or container
- to cause or allow (a rider, load, etc.) to fall off; throw off
- Informal to let (something secret) become known; divulge
- Obsolete
- to kill
- to destroy or ruin
- to squander; waste
Etymology: ME spillen < OE spillan, to destroy, squander, akin to MHG spillen, to split < IE base *(s)p(h)el-, to split, split off > spall, L spolium
intransitive verb
to be spilled from a container; overflow; run out
noun
- the act of spilling
- the amount spilled
- spillway
- a fall or tumble, as from a horse or from a vertical position
spill Idioms
spill one's guts
☆Slang to divulge everything one knows or reveal all one's personal problems
spill over
to overflow in superabundance or excess
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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