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Spoil   /spɔɪl/   Listen
verb
Spoil  v. t.  (past & past part. spoilt or spoiled; pres. part. spoiling)  
1.
To plunder; to strip by violence; to pillage; to rob; with of before the name of the thing taken; as, to spoil one of his goods or possessions. "Ye shall spoil the Egyptians." "My sons their old, unhappy sire despise, Spoiled of his kingdom, and deprived of eyes."
2.
To seize by violence; to take by force; to plunder. "No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man."
3.
To cause to decay and perish; to corrupt; to vitiate; to mar. "Spiritual pride spoils many graces."
4.
To render useless by injury; to injure fatally; to ruin; to destroy; as, to spoil paper; to have the crops spoiled by insects; to spoil the eyes by reading.


Spoil  v. i.  (past & past part. spoilt or spoiled; pres. part. spoiling)  
1.
To practice plunder or robbery. "Outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil."
2.
To lose the valuable qualities; to be corrupted; to decay; as, fruit will soon spoil in warm weather.


noun
Spoil  n.  
1.
That which is taken from another by violence; especially, the plunder taken from an enemy; pillage; booty. "Gentle gales, Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils."
2.
Public offices and their emoluments regarded as the peculiar property of a successful party or faction, to be bestowed for its own advantage; commonly in the plural; as, to the victor belong the spoils. "From a principle of gratitude I adhered to the coalition; my vote was counted in the day of battle, but I was overlooked in the division of the spoil."
3.
That which is gained by strength or effort. "Each science and each art his spoil."
4.
The act or practice of plundering; robbery; waste. "The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treason, stratagems, and spoils."
5.
Corruption; cause of corruption. (Archaic) "Villainous company hath been the spoil of me."
6.
The slough, or cast skin, of a serpent or other animal. (Obs.)
Spoil bank, a bank formed by the earth taken from an excavation, as of a canal.
The spoils system, the theory or practice of regarding public offices and their emoluments as so much plunder to be distributed among their active partisans by those who are chosen to responsible offices of administration.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Spoil" Quotes from Famous Books



... feel at the present moment will not last. You have too much generosity, too much intellect, to allow it to rest long in your bosom; and deeply as I feel this rebuff, I am not going to be so weak as to let it darken and spoil my whole life. No, my hope is too strong and too reasonable to be killed so easily. I shall come to you again, and again, and again. For I know that with you for a wife and companion my life would be a happy one; ...
— Fan • Henry Harford
... "Crying will only spoil your bright eyes, my little princess," said Trencoss, "and you will have to marry me whether ...
— Irish Fairy Tales • Edmund Leamy
... Bashti returned with his tribe the same day, grinning and chuckling as he appraised the damage. Only a few grass houses had been damaged by the shells. Only a few coconuts had been chopped down. And as for the slain pigs, lest they spoil, he made of their carcasses a great feast. One shell had knocked a hole through his sea-wall. He enlarged it for a launching-ways, faced the sides of it with dry-fitted coral rock, and gave orders for the building of an additional canoe-house. The only vexation he suffered ...
— Jerry of the Islands • Jack London
... had been driven from the little town of Aljubarrota, the wife of the village baker made herself famous by killing nine Spaniards with her wooden baking shovel—a shovel which may still be seen on the town arms. When all was over Dom Joao dedicated the spoil he had taken in the Castilian king's tent to Our Lady of the Olive Tree at Guimaraes where may still be seen, with many other treasures, a large silver-gilt triptych of the Nativity and one of the silver angels from off the royal altar.[75] Besides this, he had promised if victorious to rebuild ...
— Portuguese Architecture • Walter Crum Watson
... his frequent visits were in no way a bother to his friend; and when Frau Klaere, with the amiability of a careful hostess, considered his little idiosyncrasies of taste, he could but protest feebly: "Really, dear lady, you spoil me too much! What shall I do if, for instance, I have to go to the ...
— 'Jena' or 'Sedan'? • Franz Beyerlein


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