spilln.[170. Cf. Spell a splinter.]1. A bit of wood split off; a splinter.()2. A slender piece of anything.() A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask; a spile.() A metallic rod or pin.() A small roll of paper, or slip of wood, used as a lamplighter, etc.() (Mining) One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.()3. A little sum of money.(Ayliffe.)v. t. To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay.(Spenser.)v. t.[OE. spillen,sually, to destroy, AS. spillan, spildan, to destroy; akin to Icel. spilla to destroy, Sw. spilla to spill, Dan. spilde, G. & D. spillen to squander, OHG. spildan.]1. To destroy; to kill; to put an end to.()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.()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.()()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.()()v. i.1. To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste.()That thou wilt suffer innocents to spill. (Chaucer.)2. To be shed; to run over; to fall out, and be lost or wasted.(I. Watts.)