spill

SPILL, noun [a different orthography of spile, supra.] 1. A small peg or pin for stopping a cask; as a vent hole stopped with a spill 2. A little bar or pin of iron. 3. A little sum of money. [Not in use.] SPILL, verb transitive preterit tense spilled or spilt; participle passive id. 1. To suffer to fall or run out of a vessel; to lose to suffer to be scattered; applied only to fluids and to substances whose particles are small and loose. Thus we spill water from a pail; we spill spirit or oil from a bottle; we spill quicksilver or powders form a vessel or a paper; we spill sand or flour. 2. To suffer to be shed; as, a man spills his own blood. 3. To cause to flow out or lose; to shed; as, a man spills another's blood. [This is applied to cases of murder or other homicide, but not to venesection. In the later case we say, to let or take blood.] 4. To mischief; to destroy; as, to spill the mind or soul; to spill glory; to spill forms, etc. [This application is obsolete and now improper.] 5. TO throw away. 6. In seamen's language, to discharge the wind out of the cavity or belly of a sail. SPILL, verb intransitive 1. To waste; to be prodigal. [Not in use.] 2. TO be shed; to be suffered to fall, he lost or wasted. He was so topfull of himself, that he let it spill on all the company.