Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use spill in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Spill means to drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to accidentally pour. Example: “I spilled some sticky juice on the kitchen floor.”

Examples of spill by meaning

verbTo drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to accidentally pour.

  • I spilled some sticky juice on the kitchen floor.

verbTo spread out or fall out, as above.

  • Some sticky juice spilled onto the kitchen floor.

verbTo overflow out of a designated area.

  • The crowd spilled onto Maple Avenue.

verbTo drop something that was intended to be caught.

  • That should have been that, but Hart caught a dose of the Hennessey wobbles and spilled Adlene Guedioura's long-range shot.2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport

verbTo overflow or flow out, over or off something.

  • Liverpool Street's 1985-92 remodelling by the British Rail Architects' Department (under project lead Nick Derbyshire) had carefully followed original 1870s detailing, with the concourse designed to allow natural light to spill into the station.2025 February 5, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Railway Heritage saved in 2024”, in RAIL, number 1028, page 53

verbTo cause or flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed.

  • The cracking sound, he explained, as far as I, a non-plumber, could understand, was the sound of the overworked, undermaintained and weirdly installed heating unit’s core rupturing and spilling water into the basement.2007 February 18, Jake Mooney, “A Case of the Shivers”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022

verbTo cause to be thrown from a mount, a carriage, etc.

  • Then, not thirty feet beyond, a sudden panicky lunge to the side by his horse spilled him from the saddle.2007, Eric Flint, David Weber, 1634: The Baltic War

verbTo reveal information to an uninformed party.

  • He spilled his guts out to his new psychologist.
  • I’m going to spill it.’1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 32

More sentences with spill

  • Those paper towels were amazingly absorbent. That was quite a spill.From the entry absorbent
  • A sudden chemical spill on the highway created a chain‐collision which created a record traffic jam.From the entry create
  • If you need someone to spill your guts out to, I'm here.From the entry guts
  • He gave the floor a quick mop to soak up the spilt juice.From the entry mop
  • He ruined his new white slacks by accidentally spilling oil on them.From the entry ruin
  • The drink spilled out of the bottle because the top was off.From the entry off
  • Local volunteers played an important role in cleaning the beach after the oil spill.From the entry role
  • My boss spilled water all over my keyboard today. On the plus side, it's much cleaner now.From the entry on the plus side
  • I am such a butterfingers. That’s the third drink I’ve spilled today.From the entry butterfingers
  • I can see by your plaintive smile something is wrong, so spill it.From the entry plaintive
  • They had planned it as a surprise party, but somebody spilled the beans.From the entry spill the beans
  • Does the sink drip, or have I just spilt water over the floor?From the entry drip
  • Don't cry over spilt milk; tears won't put it back in the glass.From the entry spilt
  • "Well, there's no use crying over spilt milk," she said pragmatically.From the entry pragmatically
  • Spills of nonfloating oil in the ocean are difficult to clean up.From the entry nonfloating
  • If I spilled wine on their new carpet, I'd never hear the end of it.From the entry hear the end of it
  • To prevent my tea from spilling, I used a splash stick.From the entry splash stick
  • The flight went sour after I spilled coffee all over myself.From the entry go sour
  • What have you done? You’ve spilt it all over my new shirt!From the entry what has someone done
  • I spilled my coffee, so I asked at the counter for some blue roll.From the entry blue roll
  • Bro got milk spilt over his head! LOL!From the entry lol
  • Financial panic, earthquakes, oil spills, riots. What comes next?From the entry next
  • Spill the tea on that drama, hon.From the entry tea
  • He took a spill and scraped his knee.From the entry take a spill
  • He randomised the marbles by spilling them onto the floor.From the entry randomise
  • Oil from the spill filmed out over the ocean.From the entry film out
  • The tissue soaked up all of the spilled milk.From the entry soak up
  • Halomancy is the origin of the superstition surrounding spilled salt.From the entry halomancy
  • The spilled wine hadn't stained the microfiber couch.From the entry microfiber
  • Not a little ink has been spilled on this issue.From the entry not a little
  • People were spilling out of the stadium after the game.From the entry spill out

Meaning of spill

  1. verb To drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to accidentally pour.
  2. verb To spread out or fall out, as above.
  3. verb To overflow out of a designated area.

Full definition of spill

Questions about spill in a sentence

How do you use spill in a sentence?
Spill is used as a verb and noun. For example: “I spilled some sticky juice on the kitchen floor.”
What is a short sentence with spill?
“I’m going to spill it.’”
What does spill mean?
Spill means to drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to accidentally pour.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spill (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use spill in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/spill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.