Spoil

/spɔɪl/ · verb

Meaning

(transitive, archaic) To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of arms or armour..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive, archaic) To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of arms or armour.
2. (transitive, archaic) To strip or deprive (someone) of possessions; to rob, despoil.
3. (ambitransitive, archaic) To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.).
4. (transitive, obsolete) To carry off (goods) by force; to steal.
5. (transitive) To ruin; to damage in such a way as to make undesirable or unusable.
6. (transitive) To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess.
7. (intransitive, of food or drink) To go bad; to become sour or rancid; to decay.
8. (transitive) To render (a ballot) invalid by deliberately defacing.

Example Sentences

All that herde hym wer amased and sayde: ys nott this he that spoylled them whych called on this name in Jerusalem?

To do her dye (quoth Vna) were despight, / And shame t'auenge so weake an enimy; / But spoile her of her scarlot robe, and let her fly.

Roger, that rich Bishop of Salisbury,[…]spoiled of his goods by King Stephen, […]through grief ran mad, spoke and did he knew not what.

Outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil.

No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man.

They must likewise endeavour to be careful in looking after the rest of the Servants, that every one perform their duty in their several places, that they keep good hours in their up-rising and lying down, and that no Goods be either spoiled or embezelled.

[…] it was her own knife; little sister Mary had left it to her upon her deathbed, and she ought to have had it to keep herself long ago. But mama kept it from her, and was always letting Betsey get hold of it; and the end of it would be that Betsey would spoil it, and get it for her own, though mama had promised her that Betsey should not have it in her own hands.

There is hardly a trace of metal left in the Palace at Knossos. In one corner only, on the north-west, a friendly floor level seems to have sunk just before the plunderers entered it, and hidden from their view five splendid bronze vessels. They are all that remain to us […] to tell us what the gold and silver work was like that was spoiled from Knossos.

Synonyms for spoil

Antonyms for spoil

Related Words

Word Forms

• spoils
• spoiling
• spoiled
• spoilt

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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