n. A layer of oil floating on water or covering the shoreline of a body of water; -- usually petroleum which has leaked from an oil tanker. [ PJC ]

n. [ √170. Cf. Spell a splinter. ] 1. A bit of wood split off; a splinter. [ Obs. or Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A slender piece of anything. Specifically: -- [ 1913 Webster ]

(a) A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask; a spile. [ 1913 Webster ]

(b) A metallic rod or pin. [ 1913 Webster ]

(c) A small roll of paper, or slip of wood, used as a lamplighter, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

(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 }. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A little sum of money. [ Obs. ] Ayliffe. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Spilt p. pr. & vb. n. Spilling. ] To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Spilled or Spilt p. pr. & vb. n. 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. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

And gave him to the queen, all at her will
To choose whether she would him save or spill. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Greater glory think [ it ] to save than spill. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To mar; to injure; to deface; hence, to destroy by misuse; to waste. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

They [ the colors ] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship. Puttenham. [ 1913 Webster ]

Spill not the morning, the quintessence of day, in recreations. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Spill differs from pour in expressing accidental loss, -- a loss or waste contrary to purpose. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

And to revenge his blood so justly spilt. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Spilling line (Naut.), a rope used for spilling, or dislodging, the wind from the belly of a sail. Totten. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

That thou wilt suffer innocents to spill. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, spills. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A kind of fishing line with many hooks; a boulter. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } A system or method of fishing by means of a number of hooks set on snoods all on one line; -- in North America, called trawl fishing, bultow, or bultow fishing, and long-line fishing. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Spilikin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A sluiceway or passage for superfluous water in a reservoir, to prevent too great pressure on the dam. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Vespilloes [ L. ] (Rom. Antiq.) One who carried out the dead bodies of the poor at night for burial. [ 1913 Webster ]

Like vespilloes or grave makers. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]