spilling

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of spill.

   Rainwater was spilling over the edge of the clogged gutter.

   Fans were spilling out of the stadium long after the final whistle.

   Note

   One spelling does two grammatical jobs here. As a participle it builds progressive tenses after be (water was spilling over) and modifies nouns (spilling crowds). As a gerund it acts as a noun but can still take a direct object, as in spilling the milk. That object is how to tell it from the noun for the act, which needs of instead: the spilling of the milk.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of dropping a fluid or loose particles so that they spread out across a surface.

   The spilling of fuel across the highway forced police to close it for hours.

   After the spilling of grain from the torn sack, birds quickly gathered to feed.

   Similarspillage

   Note

   A noun that works equally well as a mass noun and as a countable one, with the plural spillings. Margaret E. Owens's Stages of Dismemberment (2005) uses the plural with forth, in "openings and exudings and spillings forth," borrowing the shape of the verb phrase spill forth. In everyday prose the uncountable form followed by of is the usual choice: the spilling of fuel, the spilling of grain.

3. 3
   nounfigurativelyuncountable

   The action of spreading out the way a liquid does, said figuratively of things that are not liquid.

   The spilling of festival crowds onto the avenues brought traffic to a standstill.

   The spilling of lamplight across the wet sidewalk made the empty street glow gold.

   Similaroverflow, spread, flood

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