English
spoil
Etymology

From Middle English spoilen, spuylen, borrowed from Old French espoillier, espollier, espuler, from Latin spoliāre, present active infinitive of spoliō ("pillage, ruin, spoil").

Pronunciation Verb

spoil (spoils, present participle spoiling; simple past and past participle spoiled)

  1. (transitive, archaic) To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of their arms or armour. [from 14th c.]
  2. (transitive, archaic) To strip or deprive (someone) of their possessions; to rob, despoil. [from 14th c.]
    • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC ↗, Acts ix:[21]:
      All that herde hym wer amased and sayde: ys nott this he that spoylled them whych called on this name in Jerusalem?
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:
      To do her dye (quoth Vna) were despight, / And shame t'auenge so weake an enimy; / But spoile her of her scarlot robe, and let her fly.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC ↗, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection vii:
      Roger, that rich Bishop of Salisbury, […] spoiled of his goods by King Stephen, […] through grief ran mad, spoke and did he knew not what.
  3. (ambitransitive, archaic) To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.). [from 14th c.]
    • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC ↗:
      Outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil.
  4. (transitive, obsolete) To carry off (goods) by force; to steal. [14th]
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Mark 3:27 ↗:
      No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man.
    • 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XXXVIII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC ↗:
      […] it was her own knife; little sister Mary had left it to her upon her deathbed, and she ought to have had it to keep herself long ago. But mama kept it from her, and was always letting Betsey get hold of it; and the end of it would be that Betsey would spoil it, and get it for her own, though mama had promised her that Betsey should not have it in her own hands.
  5. (transitive) To ruin; to damage (something) in some way making it unfit for use. [from 16th c.]
    • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC ↗:
      Spiritual pride […] spoils so many graces.
    • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC ↗:
      "I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. […]"
  6. (transitive) To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess. [from 17th c.]
  7. (intransitive) Of food, to become bad, sour or rancid; to decay. [from 17th c.]
    Make sure you put the milk back in the fridge, otherwise it will spoil.
  8. (transitive) To render (a ballot paper) invalid by deliberately defacing it. [from 19th c.]
  9. (transitive) To reveal the ending or major events of (a story etc.); to ruin (a surprise) by exposing it ahead of time.
  10. (aviation) To reduce the lift generated by an airplane or wing by deflecting air upwards, usually with a spoiler.
Synonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

spoil (plural spoils)

  1. (Also in plural: spoils) Plunder taken from an enemy or victim.
    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC ↗; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii ↗:
      Thoſe thouſand horſe shall ſweat with martiall ſpoyle
      Of conquered kingdomes, and of Cities ſackt, […]
  2. (archaic) The act of taking plunder from an enemy or victim; spoliation, pillage, rapine.
    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC ↗; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii ↗:
      This countrey ſwarmes with vile outragious men,
      That liue by rapine and by lawleſſe ſpoile,
      Fit ſouldiers for the wicked Tamburlaine.
  3. (uncountable) Material (such as rock or earth) removed in the course of an excavation, or in mining or dredging. Tailings. Such material could be utilised somewhere else.
Synonyms Translations Translations

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