spoil

/spɔɪl/

spoil verb: to strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of arms or armour.

Verb

spoil (third-person singular simple present spoils, present participle spoiling, simple past and past participle spoiled or spoilt)

(archaic, transitive) To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of arms or armour.
(archaic, transitive) To strip or deprive (someone) of possessions; to rob, despoil.
- All that herde hym wer amased and sayde: ys nott this he that spoylled them whych called on this name in Jerusalem?1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts ix:[21]
- 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.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
(ambitransitive, archaic) To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.).
- Outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil.1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […]...
(obsolete, transitive) To carry off (goods) by force; to steal.
- No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 3:27
- 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.1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, page 35
(transitive) To ruin; to damage in such a way as to make undesirable or unusable.
- All this sun spoils me for vacations in the far North.
- Spiritual pride […] spoils so many graces.1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC
Synonyms:

damage, destroy, sully, ruin
(transitive) To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess.

Synonyms:

coddle, pamper, indulge, mollycoddle
(intransitive) To go bad; to become sour or rancid; to decay.
- Make sure you put the milk back in the fridge; otherwise it will spoil.
(transitive) To render (a ballot) invalid by deliberately defacing.
- Dr Jonathan Grant (Letters, April 22) feels the best way to show his disaffection with political parties over Iraq is to spoil his ballot paper.2003, David Nicoll, The Guardian, letter
(transitive) To prematurely reveal major events or the ending of (a story etc.); to ruin (a surprise) by exposing ahead of time as a spoiler.
- These include a brief but showstopping (and trailer-revealed) scene where Vanellope crashes a Disney Princess reunion, packed with gags and references that should send both young and old fans into paroxysms of glee. The princess confab also leads into a scene featuring Vanellope and the cast of...2018 November 14, Jesse Hassenger, “Disney Goes Viral with an Ambitious, Overstuffed Wreck-It Ralph Sequel”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 21 Nov 2019
To reduce the lift generated by an airplane or wing by deflecting air upwards, usually with a spoiler.
(intransitive) To be very eager (for something).
- Senator Toombs who announced his readiness to whip Great Britain [...] has been spoiling for a fight ever since1858, The Daily Exchange, Baltimore, Md., page 2

Noun

spoil (plural spoils)

(Also in plural: spoils) Plunder taken from an enemy or victim.
- Thoſe thouſand horſe shall ſweat with martiall ſpoyle
  Of conquered kingdomes, and of Cities ſackt, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
Synonyms:

booty
(archaic) The act of taking plunder from an enemy or victim; spoliation, pillage, rapine.
- This countrey ſwarmes with vile outragious men,
  That liue by rapine and by lawleſſe ſpoile,
  Fit ſouldiers for the wicked Tamburlaine.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
(uncountable) Material (such as rock or earth) removed in the course of an excavation, or in mining or dredging. Tailings. Such material could be utilised somewhere else.
- In view of the decline in freight traffic, it was strange to hear from Mr. Lambert that there is "a continuing problem of supplying, particularly for the civil engineer, the number of wagons required for carrying construction materials and spoil for various works."1961 December, “Planning the London Midland main-line electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 721
Synonyms:

gangue, slag, tailings

spoil meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

spoil in Tamil

to ruin: பாழ் pāḻ

spoil in Marathi

to coddle or pamper: बिघडवणे bighḍavṇe
to become sour or rancid, to decay: खराब होणे kharāb hoṇe

spoil in Urdu

لوٹ, مال غنیمت, بگڑنا, خراب ہونا, بگاڑنا, خراب کرنا

spoil in Bengali

নষ্ট করা, পচে যাওয়া

More languagesFewer languages

spoil in Telugu: పాడు pāḍu, చెరచు ceracu, చెడగొట్టు ceḍagoṭṭu
spoil in Malayalam: കലുഷമാക്കുക, അഴുക്കു പിടിപ്പിക്കുക, കേടു വരുത്തുക, ചിതയ്ക്കുക
spoil in Kannada: ಲೂಟಿ, ಸುಲಿಗೆ, ದರೋಡೆ, ಕೊಳ್ಳೆಹೊಡೆದ ವಸ್ತುಗಳು
spoil in Odia: ସାରିବା sāribā
spoil in Sanskrit: दुष्यति duṣyati
spoil in Assamese: ভাঙা bhaṅa, ভাগা bhaga, ভঙা bhoṅa, ভগা bhoga
spoil in Nepali: उमाल्नु umālnu
spoil in Tagalog: konsentihin
spoil in Arabic: أَفْسَدَ ʔafsada, دَلَّلَ dallala, غَنَّجَ ḡannaja, فَسَدَ fasada
spoil in Indonesian: memanjakan, manja
spoil in Thai: ปล้น bplôn, แย่ง yɛ̂ɛng, ชิง ching, แย่งชิง
spoil in Vietnamese: nuông chiều

Examples of spoil in a sentence

Roger, that rich Bishop of Salisbury,[…]spoiled of his goods by King Stephen, […]through grief ran mad, spoke and did he knew not what.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield...
They are all that remain to us […] to tell us what the gold and silver work was like that was spoiled from Knossos.1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 18:
"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie.1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co. […]...
Let us not spoil it by saying the wrong thing, by promoting a culture of revenge, or by failing to treat the former president with respect.’2011 August 5, “What the Arab papers say”, in The Economist:

All 40 example sentences with spoil

Synonyms of spoil

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of spoil

Forms of spoil

Verb
third-person singular present	spoils
present participle	spoiling
past participle	spoiled
past	spoiled
past participle	spoilt
past	spoilt
Noun
plural	spoils

Past tense of spoil: spoiled or spoilt

Plural of spoil: spoils

Origin of spoil

From Middle English spoilen, spuylen, borrowed from Old French espoillier, espollier, espuler, from Latin spoliō, spoliāre (“pillage, ruin, spoil”).

Phrases with spoil

Words that rhyme with spoil

18 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about spoil

What does spoil mean?: Spoil means to strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of arms or armour.
What is spoil in Tamil?: Spoil in Tamil is பாழ் (pāḻ). See Spoil meaning in Tamil.
How do you use spoil in a sentence?: Roger, that rich Bishop of Salisbury,[…]spoiled of his goods by King Stephen, […]through grief ran mad, spoke and did he knew not what.
What part of speech is spoil?: Spoil can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce spoil?: Spoil is pronounced /spɔɪl/.
What is the past tense of spoil?: The past tense of spoil is spoiled.

Words near spoil in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-spoil.ogg.

Cite this entry: “spoil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spoil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.