spoil

Formsspoils, spoiling, spoiled

Pluralspoils

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To ruin something, or damage it so that it becomes undesirable or unusable.

   A single careless remark can spoil an otherwise perfect evening.

   Rust had spoiled the antique tools beyond any hope of repair.

   Similarruin, wreck, mar, damage, destroy

   Oppositeimprove, enhance

   Note

   Ruin in its broadest reach applies to things, occasions and abstractions alike. Jeremy Taylor in 1651 writes of spiritual pride that "spoils so many graces." The Economist in 2011 urges readers not to spoil a great day "by saying the wrong thing." The past forms have two spellings, spoiled and spoilt. Each serves as both the past tense and the past participle.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   Of food, to go bad: to become sour, rancid, or decayed.

   Meat and dairy spoil faster in warm, humid weather.

   The leftovers had spoiled by the time we got home.

   Similarrot, decay, sour, turn, putrefy

   Oppositekeep

   Note

   The intransitive turn, used of food or drink: the thing goes bad on its own, with no agent named. Compare the heat spoiled the milk, which is the transitive "ruin" sense, with the milk spoiled, which is this one. Left out of the fridge, milk will spoil. Nothing needs to follow the verb.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To ruin someone's character through overindulgence, or to coddle and pamper them to excess.

   Indulgent parents can spoil a child by refusing to ever say no.

   Years of constant praise had spoiled him into expecting applause for everything.

   Similarpamper, indulge, coddle, cosset, overindulge

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To ruin a surprise by revealing major events or the ending of a story before someone experiences it.

   Reviewers who spoil the twist ruin the experience for everyone.

   A single tweet spoiled the finale for millions of fans.

   Similarreveal, ruin

5. 5
   noun

   Goods, money, or other valuables taken from a defeated enemy or a victim.

   Victorious troops claimed the spoil from the captured fortress.

   The general distributed the spoils to his most loyal officers.

   Similarbooty, loot, plunder, prize

   Note

   The concrete noun names the haul itself. It works as a mass noun in the singular: Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great has horses sweating "with martiall spoyle / Of conquered kingdomes." It is also used in the plural, as in the spoils and the spoils of war. Keep it distinct from the act of plundering, which names the taking rather than what is taken.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To make a ballot invalid by deliberately marking or defacing it.

   Protesters chose to spoil their ballots rather than back any party.

   Thousands of voters spoiled their papers in protest last election.

   Similardeface, invalidate

   Note

   An electoral sense in which the damage is the point: the voter defaces the ballot on purpose so that it cannot count. David Nicoll's 2003 letter to The Guardian describes a reader who planned to show his disaffection with the parties over Iraq by spoiling his ballot paper. The usual collocation is spoil one's ballot, or one's ballot paper, framed as a deliberate act of protest.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   Rock, earth, or similar material removed during excavation, mining, or dredging, which may be reused elsewhere.

   Engineers tested the spoil before using it as fill for the embankment.

   The mine produced more spoil than the site could safely store.

   Similarwaste

   Note

   An excavator's and miner's noun, and an uncountable one: you speak of a heap or load of spoil, never "a spoil." Despite the word, nothing has decayed. The rock or earth is simply surplus to the dig and may be put to use elsewhere, for instance as fill. Tailings is a near synonym from mining and dredging.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To redirect air upward so that an aircraft or wing produces less lift, usually using a spoiler.

   Engineers design panels that spoil lift to slow the aircraft on landing.

   Raised flaps spoiled the lift, and the plane settled quickly onto the runway.

   Note

   An aviation term tied to the device that does the work. A spoiler deflects air upward over the wing, and the lift drops. Lift is the usual object: panels spoil lift, or spoil the lift of a wing. The sense is mechanical and deliberate. Nothing is damaged, and the wing works exactly as designed, so it should not be read through the everyday "ruin" meaning.

9. 9
   verbintransitive

   To be very eager for something, especially a fight or confrontation.

   Hotheads who spoil for a fight rarely think about the consequences.

   The crowd was spoiling for a confrontation with the police.

   Similaritch, long, yearn

   Note

   The eager sense lives almost entirely in the progressive with for. The Daily Exchange of Baltimore wrote in 1858 that Senator Toombs, ready "to whip Great Britain," had "been spoiling for a fight ever since." The thing wanted is usually a contest: a fight, a quarrel, a confrontation. Spoiling for is the natural shape, and the bare verb without for does not carry this meaning.

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