spill noun [√170. Cf. Spell a splinter.]

1. A bit of wood split off; a splinter. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

2. A slender piece of anything. Specifically: –

(a) A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask; a spile.

(b) A metallic rod or pin.

(c) A small roll of paper, or slip of wood, used as a lamplighter, etc.

(d) (Mining) One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead on top of a set of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground. Syn. – forepole; spile{4}.

3. A little sum of money. [Obs.] Ayliffe.

Spill, transitive verb [imperfect or past participle Spilt (spĭlt); present participle or verbal noun Spilling.] To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay. [Obs.] Spenser.

Spill (spĭl), transitive verb [imperfect or past participle Spilled (spĭld), or Spilt (spĭlt); present participle or verbal noun Spilling.] [OE. spillen, usually, to destroy, AS. spillan, spildan, to destroy; akin to Icel. spilla to destroy, Sw. spilla to spill, Dan. spilde, LG. & D. spillen to squander, OHG. spildan.]

1. To destroy; to kill; to put an end to. [Obs.]

And gave him to the queen, all at her will
To choose whether she would him save or spill. Chaucer.

Greater glory think [it] to save than spill. Spenser.

2. To mar; to injure; to deface; hence, to destroy by misuse; to waste. [Obs.]

They [the colors] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship. Puttenham.

Spill not the morning, the quintessence of day, in recreations. Fuller.

3. To suffer to fall or run out of a vessel; to lose, or suffer to be scattered; – applied to fluids and to substances whose particles are small and loose; as, to spill water from a pail; to spill quicksilver from a vessel; to spill powder from a paper; to spill sand or flour.

☞ Spill differs from pour in expressing accidental loss, – a loss or waste contrary to purpose.

4. To cause to flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed, or suffer to be shed, as in battle or in manslaughter; as, a man spills another’s blood, or his own blood.

And to revenge his blood so justly spilt. Dryden.

5. (Naut.) To relieve a sail from the pressure of the wind, so that it can be more easily reefed or furled, or to lessen the strain.

Spilling line (Naut.), a rope used for spilling, or dislodging, the wind from the belly of a sail. Totten.

Spill, intransitive verb

1. To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste. [Obs.]

That thou wilt suffer innocents to spill. Chaucer.

2. To be shed; to run over; to fall out, and be lost or wasted.

“He was so topful of himself, that he let it spill on all the company.” I. Watts.

-- Websters 1913