spoil
IPA: spˈɔɪɫ
noun
- (Also in plural: spoils) Plunder taken from an enemy or victim.
- (archaic) The act of taking plunder from an enemy or victim; spoliation, pillage, rapine.
- (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.
verb
- (transitive, archaic) To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of their arms or armour.
- (transitive, archaic) To strip or deprive (someone) of their possessions; to rob, despoil.
- (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.).
- (transitive, obsolete) To carry off (goods) by force; to steal.
- (transitive) To ruin; to damage (something) in some way making it unfit for use.
- (transitive) To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess.
- (intransitive) Of food, to become bad, sour or rancid; to decay.
- (transitive) To render (a ballot paper) invalid by deliberately defacing it.
- (transitive) To reveal the ending or major events of (a story etc.); to ruin (a surprise) by exposing it ahead of time.
- (aviation) To reduce the lift generated by an airplane or wing by deflecting air upwards, usually with a spoiler.
Advertisement
Examples of "spoil" in Sentences
- The background spoils the image.
- The fruit was spoiled and fetid.
- The hot weather spoiled the meat.
- Red links spoil the look of the page.
- Examples just spoil the flow of the sentence.
- But the oversized tags spoil the illustration.
- I don't want to spoil the the anonymity of it.
- She is the cutest but probably the most spoiled.
- It has the egotism and petulance of a spoiled child.
- It spoils the overview and neutrality of the article.
Advertisement
Advertisement