spills

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of spill.

   The toddler spills juice across the table at almost every meal.

   Whenever the tank overflows, it spills fuel onto the bare ground.

   Note

   A present-tense form that works in two directions. Transitively, someone spills something (she spills the paint). Intransitively, the thing itself spills, spreading or falling out on its own (the paint spills across the floor). It can also mean overflowing a set area, so a crowd or a liquid can spill out of the space meant to hold it.

   Rain spills over the gutter whenever the drains clog.

   The crowd spills out of the stadium after every match.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of spill.

   Cleanup crews responded to several chemical spills along the coast.

   Frequent coffee spills had stained the office carpet a dull brown.

   Note

   The same spelling does double duty: spills is the plural noun here and also the present-tense verb (she spills the milk). A determiner or number in front of it, as in two spills or the spills, marks the noun. The plural covers every sense of the noun, so it can mean messes or falls, or the thin sticks and slips of paper used to carry a flame from a fire to a candle.

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