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Spill   Listen
verb
Spill  v. t.  (past & past part. spilt or spilled; pres. part. spilling)  
1.
To destroy; to kill; to put an end to. (Obs.) "And gave him to the queen, all at her will To choose whether she would him save or spill." "Greater glory think (it) to save than spill."
2.
To mar; to injure; to deface; hence, to destroy by misuse; to waste. (Obs.) "They (the colors) disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship." "Spill not the morning, the quintessence of day, in recreations."
3.
To suffer to fall or run out of a vessel; to lose, or suffer to be scattered; applied to fluids and to substances whose particles are small and loose; as, to spill water from a pail; to spill quicksilver from a vessel; to spill powder from a paper; to spill sand or flour. Note: Spill differs from pour in expressing accidental loss, a loss or waste contrary to purpose.
4.
To cause to flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed, or suffer to be shed, as in battle or in manslaughter; as, a man spills another's blood, or his own blood. "And to revenge his blood so justly spilt."
5.
(Naut.) To relieve a sail from the pressure of the wind, so that it can be more easily reefed or furled, or to lessen the strain.
Spilling line (Naut.), a rope used for spilling, or dislodging, the wind from the belly of a sail.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Spill" Quotes from Famous Books



... more probable that Alexander will flow out of a bung-hole than that any part of his remains will ever stop one. Our life is indeed a vapor, a breath, a little moisture condensed upon the pane. We carry ourselves as in a phial. Cleave the flesh, and how quickly we spill out! Man begins as a fish, and he swims in a sea of vital fluids as long as his life lasts. His first food is milk; so is his last and all between. He can taste and assimilate and absorb nothing but liquids. The same is true throughout all organic nature. 'Tis water-power ...
— Locusts and Wild Honey • John Burroughs

... reality is there in it, which saith, 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit' (John 12:24). To signify that unless Jesus Christ did indeed spill his blood, and die the cursed death, he should abide alone; that is, have never a soul into glory with him; but if he died, he should bring forth much fruit; that is, save many sinners. And also how real a truth there was in that parable concerning the Jews ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... of the shelter I found 2 pages all pulped by the rain and the writing all run and one page was in the footpath quite torn. Someone must have trodden on it with the heel of his boot and 2 pages had been rolled into a spill and partly burned. So no one had read anything. I am so happy. And at supper Father said: I say, why are your eyes shining with delight? Have you won the big prize in the lottery? and I pressed Mother's foot with mine to remind ...
— A Young Girl's Diary • An Anonymous Young Girl

... rearrangement of the parlor furniture might help to get rid of that heart-beating expectation—soothing, and bulwarking me around with domesticity. But the excitement of the city kept invading my retreat, as if it were so full of that great matter that it had to spill over even into houses where it wasn't wanted. The first ripple had been the sight of my name in the paper that morning; but the wave went quite over me when, just before luncheon, Hallie rushed in. She had been ...
— The Other Side of the Door • Lucia Chamberlain

... He was an old man, and very shaky on his pins. His hand trembled as with a palsy, especially noticeable when he poured his whiskey, though I never knew him to spill a drop. He had been twenty-eight years in Melanesia, ranging from German New Guinea to the German Solomons, and so thoroughly had he become identified with that portion of the world, that he habitually spoke in that ...
— South Sea Tales • Jack London

... articles of diet are boiled ham with sugar frosting, cakes flavored with the native lime, and lemon soda. Like the coy nun in Chaucer's "Prologue," she who is most elegant will take care not to spill the food upon her lap, eat with the fingers, or spit out the bones. At wedding feasts the gentlemen are given ...
— The Great White Tribe in Filipinia • Paul T. Gilbert

... of the biplane, that's sure," Andy went on in a relieved voice. "Perhaps they didn't have as good luck in landing as we did, and had a nasty spill. Don't I hope they busted some of the planes, or part of the little old Gnome engine, so we won't have to be ...
— The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing - Aeroplane Chums in the Tropics • John Luther Langworthy

... and spill potatoes, to go into the water and pick up water, to go everywhere and wash a petunia, this is a disgrace, it is such a disgrace that there is no meaning in closing and yet, why forget, when to forget is one thing, ...
— Matisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein - With Two Shorter Stories • Gertrude Stein

... and just. I will grow clamorous—by the rood, I will, If thus ye use me like a pewter pot. Good friend, thou art a toper and a sot— I will not be the lead to hold thy swill, Nor any lead: I will arise and spill Thy silly beverage, ...
— Robert Falconer • George MacDonald

... more than once did I hear her moan, "Oh, Coachy is dead! my Coachy is dead!" When at last she strove to dry her eyes—poor, swollen eyes—it was truly a difficult matter. At first it seemed of no use to try, for again and again they would fill up, and spill the tears over her cheeks. We had to go and bathe them finally, and then Bessie walked into the kitchen and brokenly ...
— Harper's Young People, October 12, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... dat. Now see Pomp wheel dat barrow, and neber spill lil bit ob ashums, and nex' time he go over oder place, he bring um pockets full for Mass' ...
— Mass' George - A Boy's Adventures in the Old Savannah • George Manville Fenn

... "They spill blood like Christians," said the Wondersmith, gazing fondly on the manikins. "They will be ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 24, Oct. 1859 • Various

... brows crowned with wreaths and a flowering branch in her outstretched hand. With increasing swiftness the canoe approached the falls, poised on the brink a moment, then tilted forward and shot downward, turning over and over and spilling Eeny-Meeny and her piney bed into the river. As the spill occurred, Hinpoha and Gladys and Sahwah and Katherine, who were playing the parts of the bereaved companions of the sacrificed maiden, tore their hair and uttered blood-curdling shrieks ...
— The Campfire Girls on Ellen's Isle - The Trail of the Seven Cedars • Hildegard G. Frey

... same as Jimmy did by his daughter, but Charley's got the blood in him. It's hell to peach on your own, but it's worse to hear that iron door clank behind you, and to know it's for the last time! After all, there ain't nothin' in what we can tell about Charley that a lot of other people wouldn't spill, an' nothin' that could land him behind the bars. I ain't the man I was, or I'd take my medicine without squealin', but I can't face it again, Mame, I can't! I'm an old man now, old before my time, perhaps, but it's been ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander

... Thompson. He's a rustler an' a hoss-thief, an' a murderer who, as he says, has planted forty-two, not countin' Injuns, Mexicans an' mavericks. He oughter be massacred; an' as it's come your way, why prance in an' spill his blood. This camp'll ...
— Wolfville Days • Alfred Henry Lewis

... if you've got a cup that only just holds a half-pint, then so that you can get your half-pint of coffee or wine or holy water or what not, it's get to be filled right up, and they don't ever do it at serving-out, and if they do, you spill it." ...
— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse

... with papa," said Lucy, who sat carefully drinking her cambric tea, so that she might not spill a drop on ...
— Virginia • Ellen Glasgow

... in the room itself, but swept through it like the blast of a trumpet: "If this hesitation and vacillation continue, all is lost; and it would then be better for us to throw ourselves immediately at the feet of Bonaparte, and crave quarter, than unnecessarily spill the precious blood of the people, and at last submit. He who does not advance goes backward without noticing it, and he who is not courageous enough to attack, is vanquished even before his adversary has forced ...
— NAPOLEON AND BLUCHER • L. Muhlbach

... cried Freddie, eager to show what a little man he was. He made his way to the cooler without accident, and then, moving slowly, taking hold of the seat on the way back, so as not to spill the water, he brought the silver cup ...
— The Bobbsey Twins at School • Laura Lee Hope

... crook of his arm like a child. "My fightin' day air over, praise ter Gawd. Thar war a time when I war sorter proud of ther notch thet's cut in the stock er my fust gun; but now ... wall, I'd give a good deal ef 'twarn't thar. I figgers, nowerdays, thet hit haint the Lord's purpose thet humans should spill each other's blood, leastwise onless thar's somethin' bigger et stake then ...
— 'Smiles' - A Rose of the Cumberlands • Eliot H. Robinson

... in the Holy Scriptures...." Had the words been lurking at the back of his mind, when he was writing the Tractatus? he asked himself, troubled to find them still in his memory. Had resentment colored the Jewish sections? Had his hot Spanish blood kept the memory of the dagger that had tried to spill it? Had suffering biassed the impersonality of his intellect? "This compels me to nothing which I should not otherwise have done," he had said to his Mennonite friend when the sentence reached him in the Oudekirk Road. ...
— Dreamers of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill

... he seemed already to hold up his head in a highly military manner; and when he stooped down to get a light he tried to stoop in the same graceful and military style as the sergeant himself; and after blowing it out, threw down the spill in the most off-hand manner possible, as though he said, "That's how we chaps do it in the Hussars!" Everyone noticed the difference in the manner and bearing of the young recruit. There was a certain swagger and boldness of demeanour that only comes after you have enlisted. Nor was this ...
— The Humourous Story of Farmer Bumpkin's Lawsuit • Richard Harris

... life's grain and chaff we have sifted; Youth went by in idle tasting, Now we drink the cup, unhasting, Spill not a drop, brimful and high uplifted; And we watch now, calm and fearless, the years depart, Knowing nothing can now sever Two that life made one forever— Life was such a serious business at ...
— A Jongleur Strayed - Verses on Love and Other Matters Sacred and Profane • Richard Le Gallienne

... chatter about what used to be and get down to cases. Jimmie, will you spill the business to Larry, ...
— Children of the Whirlwind • Leroy Scott

... slant in furrow-cloven falls To roll the torrent out of dusky doors; But follow; let the torrent dance thee down To find him in the valley; let the wild Lean-headed eagles yelp alone, and leave The monstrous ledges there to slope, and spill Their thousand wreaths of dangling water-smoke, That like a broken purpose waste in air; So waste not thou; but come; for all the vales Await thee; azure pillars of the hearth Arise to thee; the children call, and I Thy shepherd pipe, and sweet ...
— The Precipice • Elia Wilkinson Peattie

... no sooner spoken But straight appeared in sight Three lusty Spanish vessels Of warlike trim and might; With bloody resolution They thought our men to spill, And they vowed that they would make a prize Of our ...
— Lyra Heroica - A Book of Verse for Boys • Various

... once the horse stood still, Close by the meet'n'house on the hill. First a shiver, and then a thrill, Then something decidedly like a spill— And the parson was sitting upon a rock, 5 At half past nine by the meet'n'house clock— Just the ...
— Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year • E.C. Hartwell

... do you say to these black pots three? If a man and his wife should not agree, Why, they'll tug and pull till their liquor doth spill; In a leather bottel they may tug their fill, And pull away till their hearts do ake, And yet their liquor no harm can take. So I wish in heav'n his soul may dwell That first found out ...
— Old Ballads • Various

... to spill anything. A moment more and we should have heard what it was that had him in such a grip of horror. But as I glanced at Worth, I saw him reply to the older man's question with a very slight but very perceptible ...
— The Million-Dollar Suitcase • Alice MacGowan

... you do not spill it, Amine. That is right, let him have a whole cupful. Stop, give it to me; I will take it to ...
— The Phantom Ship • Frederick Marryat

... straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way, and said, I am void of fear in this matter: prepare thyself to die; for I swear by my infernal den, that thou shalt go no further; here will I spill thy soul. ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... resolved to give you this caveat, my eyelids never closed, my heart was a fire, my soul suffered a thousand thousand torments; yet I could not, nor cannot persuade my conscience, in honesty, to betray my friends, or spill their bloods, when this timely warning may prevent the mischief.' In conclusion, he said, 'though I reverence the mass and the Catholic religion equal with the devoutest of them, I will make the leaders of this dance know that I prefer my country's good before ...
— The Land-War In Ireland (1870) - A History For The Times • James Godkin

... he again, I'll bolt in an' see what's goin' an—oh ma shaght millia mattach orth, Flanagan, if you spill blood—Jasus above! Well, any how, come or go what may, we can hang him for ...
— Fardorougha, The Miser - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton

... once more went down to the end of the car and got Bunny a drink. By this time the train had stopped at a station, so the car was not "jiggling" as Sue called it. And Bunny did not spill his cup ...
— Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Aunt Lu's City Home • Laura Lee Hope

... me feelin' mad is becos dey don't spik out, Non! dey 'll sneak aroun' for watch me as I go, An' if I mebbe spill leetle water on de hill, W'en I 'm comin' from de well down dere below, No use for tellin' me—I know too moche mese'f, Dat 's de tam I 'm very sure dey alway say, "See heem now, how slow he go—don't I offen ...
— The Voyageur and Other Poems • William Henry Drummond

... he shouted, "or you'll bring trouble on me and my house. Let the gentlemen go—it's nothin' but a fadlin' cove they've got, and not a bushman. For the honor of the 'Cricket' don't spill blood here," pleaded Dan Brian, ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes

... Neath the chill-pointed weapon's blow, To Lakshman spoke again: "See, Lakshman, see! this mortal dart That strikes a numbing chill, Hath struck him senseless with the smart, But left him breathing still. But these who love the evil way, And drink the blood they spill, Rejoicing holy rites to stay, Fierce plagues, my hand shall kill." He seized another shaft, the best, Aglow with living flame; It struck Suvahu on the chest, And dead to earth he came. Again a dart, the Wind-God's own, Upon his string he laid, And all the demons were o'erthrown, The saints no ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI

... I make wi' a horse o' pride, And what should I make wi' a sword so brown, But spill the rings o' the Gentle Folk And flyte my ...
— Verses 1889-1896 • Rudyard Kipling

... ever. I never knew him go so well as he is now, and he perfectly loves a jump. Dad has a new horse he calls Monarch, and he is a beauty, he is black with a star. OF COURSE, don't say anything about Cecil's spill to anybody, he could not help it. And he had a much bigger laugh at me, 'cause I fell into the lagoon the day he came. I will tell you all about it ...
— Mates at Billabong • Mary Grant Bruce

... said, "that was a spill. When ye went down ye seemed 'mos' as leggy as a spider. Next time ye go coastin', Ab, ye'd better not wear your Sunday hat. 'Tain't no better'n a kite when it ...
— Jimsy - The Christmas Kid • Leona Dalrymple

... Not to spill its lakes and rivers. The water is held in its arms And the sky is held in ...
— Poems By a Little Girl • Hilda Conkling

... lauded her that was his betrothed, but she exclaimed, 'Hush! or the jealousy of this Ass will be aroused, and of a surety he'll spill us.' ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... a dozen or more boys in the race, all prepared for a spill in the water, which seemed to be the inevitable end ...
— The Hilltop Boys on the River • Cyril Burleigh

... responded; but immediately laughed—'Harrington? 'Gad, if he takes the leap it'll be odd—another of the name. That's where old Mel had his spill.' ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... and new. Even fingers that were clumsy and trembling found little difficulty in making a spill of it and inserting it (this with less ease) into ...
— Whirligigs • O. Henry

... about her, as Stuart with the doctor beside him started the car again down the drive. In a front window her eyes lighted on a flaming branch of maple leaves. Only two hours ago she and her lover had been watching the sunlight spill through the gorgeous filter of the painted foliage. They had carried in their hearts the spirit of carnival. Now the storm ...
— The Tyranny of Weakness • Charles Neville Buck

... slow, heartbreaking climb up a long, bare ridge, Pink and Irish paused upon the brow of a slope and let the trail-weary band spill itself reluctantly down the steep slope beyond, the sun stood high in the blue above them and their stomachs clamored for food; by which signs they knew that it must ...
— Flying U Ranch • B. M. Bower

... civilised country during half a century, and found that the total amounted to nine and a half millions, while, by including the Napoleonic and other wars of the beginning of the nineteenth century, he considered that that total would be doubled. Put in another form, Lapouge says, the wars of a century spill 120,000,000 gallons of blood, enough to fill three million forty-gallon casks, or to create a perpetual fountain sending up a jet of 150 gallons per hour, a fountain which has been flowing unceasingly ever ...
— Essays in War-Time - Further Studies In The Task Of Social Hygiene • Havelock Ellis

... this huge clamor; they feel that they are likely to be trodden under foot or thrown out of the windows. Others, with more firmness, being aware that a riotous crowd is mad, and having scruples to spill blood; yield for the time being, hoping that at the next market-day there will be more soldiers and better precautions taken. At Amiens, "after a very violent outbreak,"[1118] they decide to take the wheat belonging to the Jacobin monks, and, protected by the troops, ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 2 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 1 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... nothin' else, Miss Leffie Lacey, if you please," said Rondeau, snapping his fingers in her face, and giving Aunt Dilsey's elbow a slight jostle, just enough to spill the oil, with which she ...
— Tempest and Sunshine • Mary J. Holmes

... his pocket, and took up the mortar carefully, because he did not wish to spill the precious stones, and made a low bow ...
— Tales of Wonder Every Child Should Know • Various

... character, seemed like favourable omens not to be neglected. He began to imagine fresh villanies, to outline an unheard-of crime, which as yet he could not definitely trace out; but anyhow there would be plunder to seize and blood to spill, and the spirit of murder excited and kept him awake, just as remorse might have troubled ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - DERUES • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... filles de chambre. Far in advance of all, however, was my lord with a drawn sword in his hand, shouting, "Where is the wretch who has dishonoured my son, where is he? He shall die forthwith." I know not how it was, mon maitre, but I just then chanced to spill a large bowl of garbanzos, which were intended for the puchera of the following day. They were un-cooked, and were as hard as marbles; these I dashed upon the floor, and the greater part of them fell just about the doorway. Eh bien, mon maitre, in another moment in ...
— The Pocket George Borrow • George Borrow

... a-talkin to?" replied the boy, cold as the other was hot. "I'm a King's officer on King's business. Remove your face, please. Sit down. And don't shake so, or you'll spill us.—I'm a midshipman ...
— The Gentleman - A Romance of the Sea • Alfred Ollivant

... makes a lotus ship of every eye Upventuring; song's sail that pilotless Drifts down, a wing's caress On billowed field and climbing shore Whose veiny tidelets beat and cling, Bloom-labouring, Invincibly sweet and far, Up looming cone and scaur, And clambering spill To lap of ledge and aproned hill The heaped and whispering greenery Of beauty's burden that ...
— Path Flower and Other Verses • Olive T. Dargan

... blameless are in lover-slavery! I was a Kzi whom my Fate deigned aid with choicest aid * By writ and reed and raisd me to wealth and high degree; Till I was shot by sharpest shaft that knows nor leach nor cure * By Damsel's glance who came to spill my blood and murther me. To me came she, a Moslemah and of her wrongs she 'plained * With lips that oped on Orient-pearls ranged fair and orderly: I looked beneath her veil and saw a wending moon at full * Rising below the wings of Night engloomed with blackest blee: A brightest favour and ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 8 • Richard F. Burton

... had better stop beside the road while we eat," said Mr. Brown. "This automobile is all right for traveling, but the roads are so rough here that I may spill my tea. So ...
— Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour • Laura Lee Hope

... which controlled the wilful canvas needed another pull. But if the yard itself had not been laid right, it was too late to mend it. To start a brace with the men on the spar might cause a jerk that would spill from it some one whose both hands were in the work, contrary to the sound tradition, "One hand for yourself and one for the owners." I believe the old English phrase ran, "One for yourself and one for ...
— From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life • Captain A. T. Mahan

... Sue helped put the eggs in baskets, but they did not carry them for fear they would spill and break them—break the eggs, not the baskets, I mean. For if you break a basket you can fix it, but if you break an egg, no one can mend it—you have ...
— Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm • Laura Lee Hope

... Mohammedans; but, for our purpose, the significant fact is that when the Thugs were Hindus they were K[a]li-Civaites. And we believe that these secret murderers, strange as it seems, originated in a reformatory movement. As is well known, it was a religious principle with them not to spill blood.[54] They always throttled. They were, of course, when they first became known m 1799 (Sherwood's account), nothing but robbers and murderers. But, like the other Civaite monstrosities, they regarded their work as a religious act, and always invoked ...
— The Religions of India - Handbooks On The History Of Religions, Volume 1, Edited By Morris Jastrow • Edward Washburn Hopkins

... was no longer expedient to hull them merely. Their speed was so much superior to the brig's that even if we hit one or other of them they might close in before their pace was much checked by the inrush of water. Loath as I was to spill blood, I bade the bosun now load the gun with grape, and my qualms were banished when I heard cries of pain, and learned that Runnles and another had been hit by musket shots. The smack that was leading was coming up directly ...
— Humphrey Bold - A Story of the Times of Benbow • Herbert Strang

... dust, dirt, and moisture are enemies of electrical equipment. Spill dust and dirt onto the points where the wires in electric motors connect with terminals, and onto insulating parts. Inefficient transmission of current and, in some cases, short circuits will result. Wet generator motors ...
— Simple Sabotage Field Manual • Strategic Services

... love. She stood before her paramour on the deck, Cocking her painted head to right and left, Her white teeth smiling, but her voice a hiss: 'Quickly,' she said to Archer, 'come away, Or there'll be blood spilt!' 'Better blood than wine,' Said Archer, struggling to his feet, 'but who, Who would spill blood?' 'Marlowe!' she said. Then Puff Reeled to his feet. 'What, Kit, the cobbler's son? The lad that broke his leg at the Red Bull, Tamburlaine-Marlowe, he that would chain kings To's chariot-wheel? What, is he rushing hither? He would spill blood for Gloriana, hey? O, my Belphoebe, ...
— Collected Poems - Volume Two (of 2) • Alfred Noyes

... her, and she was being tutored by a school-teacher with blue goggles and a weak heart who lived at the same resort. "Why grow up a Boob," wrote the philosophic Mayme, "when the lil old world is full of wise guys just aking to spill their wiseness?" ...
— From a Bench in Our Square • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... each plain; Each naiad rumps on velvet down; A bat-shapped Buzzard makes its bed; A red-tongued Gecko storms each lee. Then apes and adders writhe with pain As Cauldrons vomit oils that burn; 'Mid churning storms of stinging sleet, Vial haunts of gore spill their quest And murder with unholy lust, Wilst fagots, beacons, torches, turn Hell's Pompeian shoals to heat; And viscid mists rise in the West— Dank treasures of Damnation's dust! In search ...
— Betelguese - A Trip Through Hell • Jean Louis de Esque

... and she put a little bit of butter and a speck of lard in a skillet, and cooked the fish brown. She made a slice of toast and boiled a cup of water and carried it to the door; then she went in and set the table beside the bed, and I took in the tray, and didn't spill a drop. Mother never said a word; she just reached out and broke off a tiny speck and nibbled it, and it stayed; she tried a little bigger piece, and another, and she said: "Take out the bones, Candace!" She ate every scrap of that fish like the hungriest traveller who ...
— Laddie • Gene Stratton Porter

... risk is pretty heavy as it is," Dick retorted. "If I was going to spill your secret, I could do it now, map or ...
— Guns of the Gods • Talbot Mundy

... never was kettle so heavy as that; its miserable weight made him groan at every step. Suddenly the broom-handle slipped from his hand, and down it went. No doubt his laudable object was to spill the tar, in order to gain time for his benefactor, and perhaps postpone the tarring and feathering altogether. But Griffin grasped the kettle in time to prevent its upsetting, and the next instant flourished the club ...
— Cudjo's Cave • J. T. Trowbridge

... and crossed the room, dragging his big feet heavily as though they were burdens to him. He looked out of the window into the hog corral and saw the pigs burying themselves in the straw before the shed. The leaden gray clouds were beginning to spill themselves, and the snowflakes were settling down over the white leprous patches of frozen earth where the hogs had gnawed even the sod away. He shuddered and began to walk, tramping heavily with his ungainly feet. ...
— A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays • Willa Cather

... pity on your children, and grant us two days in which our old men may counsel together to find means of appeasing your wrath." Then, offering another belt to the assembled chiefs, "This belt is to pray you to remember that you are of our kin. If you spill our blood, do not forget that it is also your own. Try to soften the heart of our father, whom we have offended so often. These two slaves are to replace some of the blood you have lost. Grant us the two days we ask, for I cannot say more till our ...
— A Half Century of Conflict - Volume I - France and England in North America • Francis Parkman

... you love me too, bonnie Peggie, O! An' you've sworn you will be true, bonnie Peggie, O! Let the world gae as it will, Be it weel or be it ill, Nae hap our joy shall spill, bonnie ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... does not necessarily change my opinion, otherwise this would be at the mercy of every superior mind that held a different one. How many of our most cherished beliefs are like those drinking-glasses of the ancient pattern, that serve us well so long as we keep them in our hand, but spill all if we attempt to set them down! I have sometimes compared conversation to the Italian game of mora, in which one player lifts his hand with so many fingers extended, and the other matches or misses the number, as the case may be with his own. I show ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various

... hurricanoes spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! You sulphurous thought-executing fires Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts Singe my white head! And thou, all shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world! Crack nature's moulds, all germons spill at once That ...
— Swan Song • Anton Checkov

... bad case of upturned nails I've found here already," he said quietly. "There's no end of broken bottles and such trash under foot, and just look at that overloaded truck, will you? One sharp curve in the track and that load will spill all over the place. Why, these chaps don't realize the first thing ...
— Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts • Roy Rutherford Bailey

... —But yet what thou hast said, I needs must blame, For if my resolutions prove the same, I now should kill thee, and my life renew; But were it brave or just to murder you? At worst, I should an unkind Sister kill, Thou wouldst the sacred blood of Friendship spill. I kill a Man that has undone my Fame, Ravish'd my Mistress, and contemn'd my Name, And, Sister, one who does not thee prefer: But thou no reason hast to injure her. Such charms of Innocence her Eyes do dress, ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. III • Aphra Behn

... carpet neither stared one out of countenance nor made one fearful to set foot upon it. It was a jolly, chummy sort of carpet that seemed to say, "Walk on me all you want to, and don't be afraid to spill your crumbs; I like crumbs." A very large tortoise-shell cat lay stretched along the arm of the couch, half asleep, and purred as Eve dipped her fingers in the long fur. The windows on the side of the room were open and the draperies swayed gently with the little ...
— The Lilac Girl • Ralph Henry Barbour

... quantities, and it came to the knowledge of the old chief, Au-paw-ko- si-gan, who was the war chief, but was acting as principal chief at Little Traverse, he would call out his men to go and search for the liquor, and if found he would order him men to spill the whisky on the ground by knocking the head of a barrel with an ax, telling them not to bring any more whisky into the Harbor, or wherever the Ottawas are, along the coast of Arbor Croche. This was the end of it, there being no law suit for ...
— History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan • Andrew J. Blackbird

... Wheels swift in flashing rings, And flutters round his quiet kin With brave flame-mottled wings. The wild Pinks burst in crimson fire, The Phlox' bright clusters shine, And Prairie-cups are swinging free To spill their airy wine. ...
— Choice Specimens of American Literature, And Literary Reader - Being Selections from the Chief American Writers • Benj. N. Martin

... them in their owne language, whom, assoone as they heard, they returned, and threwe away their bowes and arrowes, and some of them came vnto vs, embracing and entertaining vs friendly, desiring vs not to gather or spill any of their corne, for that they had but little. We answered them, that neither their corne, nor any other thing of theirs, should be diminished by any of vs, and that our comming was onely to renew the old loue, that was betweene vs and them at the first, and to liue with them ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of - the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. • Richard Hakluyt

... the hill above Porlock, wondering whether my mother would be in a fright, or would not know it. The two great packages of powder, slung behind my back, knocked so hard against one another that I feared they must either spill or blow up, and hurry me over Peggy's ears from the woollen cloth I rode upon. For father always liked a horse to have some wool upon his loins whenever he went far from home, and had to stand about, where one pleased, hot, and wet, and panting. And father ...
— Lorna Doone - A Romance of Exmoor • R. D. Blackmore

... you're going to quarrel, if you spill the salt, and that it's bad luck to step over a crack in the floor, and you musn't begin ...
— Sara, a Princess • Fannie E. Newberry

... his glass of cowslip wine in his hand, and Maggie jerked him so as to make him spill half of it. He would have been an extreme milksop if he had not said angrily, "Look ...
— Tom and Maggie Tulliver • Anonymous

... to Pytho's floor To ask. And God in that for which I came Rejected me, but round me, like a flame, His voice flashed other answers, things of woe, Terror, and desolation. I must know My mother's body and beget thereon A race no mortal eye durst look upon, And spill in murder mine own father's blood. I heard, and, hearing, straight from where I stood, No landmark but the stars to light my way, Fled, fled from the dark south where Corinth lay, To lands far off, where never I might see My doom of scorn fulfilled. On bitterly I strode, and reached the region where, ...
— Oedipus King of Thebes - Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes • Sophocles

... Meanwhile, we'll put the Ermetyne through a routine questioning ourselves when she gets over being groggy. Courtesy will be on the moderate side. She'll probably spill part of what she knows, especially if you sit there and hand her the beady ...
— Legacy • James H Schmitz

... me,' 'e says, 'by takin' the wardroom poultry for that. I've ear-marked every fowl we've shipped at Madeira, so there can't be any possible mistake. M'rover,' 'e says, 'tell 'em if they spill one drop of blood on the deck,' he says, 'they'll not be ...
— Traffics and Discoveries • Rudyard Kipling

... was a little dejected on account of his distemper and the inconveniences of the prison; he therefore went before the rest, accompanied but by a few persons, lest he should be oppressed by the crowd, and so not have the honor to spill his blood. Some cried out to him, "Remember us." "Do you also," says he, "remember me." Julian and Victoricus exhorted a long while the brethren to peace, and recommended to their care the whole body of the clergy, those especially who had undergone the hardships of imprisonment. Montanus, ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler

... the rush through the window, and she saw now a spill of ink just by the place where the book had been. But Robert could not have been there, because she was talking to the fairy at the very time, and she must have noticed him, and felt him greatly ...
— Little Folks (December 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... be very much damaged, or might go to pieces altogether. Hence the care with which it is handled. It is dangerous, also, to stand upright in it, as it is so "crank" that it would easily turn over, and spill both canoe-men and cargo into the water. The voyageurs, therefore, when once they have got in, remain seated during the whole passage, shifting about as little as they can help. When landed for the night, the canoe is always taken out of the water as described. The bark ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid

... the dangling Nick, ever ready to take up cudgels with this adversary, no matter what his condition. "Course I have," he repeated. "Think me crazy to sail in this cranky message boat without insurance against a spill? I guess not. And you see what a wise head Nick has, fellows! Why, hang it, I'd just about been drowned this time if it hadn't been ...
— Motor Boat Boys Mississippi Cruise - or, The Dash for Dixie • Louis Arundel

... fine to go with you," Bud declared. "I'm next thing to broke, but I've got a lot of muscle I can cash in on the deal. And I know the open. And I can rock a gold-pan and not spill out all the colors, if there is any—and whatever else I know is liable to come in handy, and what I ...
— Cabin Fever • B. M. Bower

... realises that. But there is one difference. He sees; he knows. And he knows his one freedom: he may anticipate the day of his death. All of which is not good for a man who is made to live and love and be loved. Yet suicide, quick or slow, a sudden spill or a gradual oozing away through the years, is the price John Barleycorn exacts. No friend of his ever escapes making the just, ...
— John Barleycorn • Jack London

... time, His Father an Hog had kill'd, And Tom to see the Pudding made, Fear that it should be spill'd; He sat, the Candle for to Light, Upon the Pudding-Bowl: Of which there is unto this Day A pretty Pastime told: For Tom ...
— Parodies of Ballad Criticism (1711-1787) • William Wagstaffe

... wife looked at each other for a while, and presently began to cry. Then they took the old grandfather to the table, and henceforth always let him eat with them, and likewise said nothing if he did spill a little ...
— Grimms' Fairy Tales • The Brothers Grimm

... kid, and I'll spill it to ya," Murphy said, talking as they walked. "Dis raid was all a phoney, ...
— Spring Street - A Story of Los Angeles • James H. Richardson

... got up from the table, and taking a seat on the settle opposite the speaker, slowly filled a long clay and took a spill from the fireplace. His pipe lit, he turned to his niece, and slowly bade her go over the account of her ...
— Lady of the Barge and Others, Entire Collection • W.W. Jacobs

... that!" he ejaculated as he sank on the cushions and wiped his face. "And in more senses than one, my dear. In tearing round a corner we nearly had a nasty spill. Had I pitched out and broken my neck, this hole would have got my bones after all.—Not that I was sorry to miss that cock-and-hen-show, Mary. It was really too much of a good ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson

... Emersonian mould. Her sentences are short; she uses a homely illustration by preference. "Independence," she says, "in an absolute sense is an impossibility. The nature of things is against it. The human soul was not made to contain itself. It was made to spill over, and it does and will spill over, always as quid pro quo, wherever lodged, to the end of time."... "There is a vast amount of thinking which ought to be in the market. We hold our best thoughts and give our second best."... "We do a good ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, September, 1885 • Various

... far backward and forward above the table that we thought they would certainly spill the oil over us in one of their wild pitches; the settees by the table slid under us as the ship rolled, so that there was no comfort, and any one who tried to walk from one place to another had to hang on to whatever he could get hold ...
— A Jolly Fellowship • Frank R. Stockton

... him from running against her legs while she was busy over the fire, Mrs. Mulcahy certainly had emptied a ladleful of boiling potato-water upon the poor puppy's back; and from that moment it was only necessary to spill a drop of the coldest possible water, or of any cold liquid, on any part of his body, and he believed he was again dreadfully scalded, and ran out of the house screaming in all the fancied theories ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 4 • Charles Dudley Warner

... sit down at once, And Susan Black you are a dunce, And Annie Grey you needn't think I didn't see you spill the ink. ...
— Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 • Edward William Cole

... their iron roasting pot. Little August saw all these things, as he saw everything with his two big bright eyes, that had such curious lights and shadows in them; but he went needfully on his way for the sake of the beer which a single slip of the foot would make him spill. At his knock and call the solid oak door, four centuries old if one, flew open, and the boy darted in with his beer and shouted with all the force of mirthful lungs: "Oh, dear Hirschvogel, but for the thought of you ...
— Bimbi • Louise de la Ramee

... to spill water on my apron, and I spread it out to dry before the fire which was flickering on the sitting-room hearth. The apron did not dry quickly enough to suit me, so I drew nearer and threw it right over the hot ashes. The fire leaped into life; ...
— Story of My Life • Helen Keller

... have the hardest time Who emigrate by land; For when they cook out in the wind They're sure to burn their hand. Then they scold their husbands round, Get mad and spill the tea,— I'd have thanked my stars if they'd not come out Upon ...
— Cowboy Songs - and Other Frontier Ballads • Various

... lord and his people had set sail for Gaul. Well, then, if thou wilt not come with us, when things be settled, and a man may know better what to look for, I shall come and seek thee, and we will have a talk over old days together, and spill a drop or so to Bacchus. Until then, comrade ...
— Nicanor - Teller of Tales - A Story of Roman Britain • C. Bryson Taylor

... that 'we are never scorched and drenched at the same time.' Blessings on his experience! Ask him these questions about 'scorching and drenching.' Did he never play at cricket, or walk a mile in hot weather? Did he never spill a dish of tea over himself in handing the cup to his charmer, to the great shame of his nankeen breeches? Did he never swim in the sea at noonday with the sun in his eyes and on his head, which ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. IV - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... his prisoner. I set about drawing it the same evening, and all the while the pantings of its little heart showed it to be in the most extreme agonies of fear. I had intended to kill it, in order to fix it in the claws of a stuffed owl; but, happening to spill a few drops of water near where it was tied, it lapped it up with such eagerness, and looked in my face with such an eye of supplicating terror, as perfectly overcame me. I immediately restored it to life and liberty. The agonies of a prisoner at the stake, while the fire and instruments ...
— Heads and Tales • Various

... her on her own ground. As for the Bumble, she's quite distraught. She keeps glancing at us as if she expected somebody all the time to spill her tea, or break a plate, or pull a face, or do something dreadful. We're not usually an ...
— The Madcap of the School • Angela Brazil

... "I think we ought to pump on it so as to put the fire out." So he ran for his pump which had not been emptied in filling the kettle, and though the trough was somewhat in the way, he managed to spill out the rest of the water on to the hot range, while Yulee brought the cream-jug and emptied its contents also on it. By this time the range was pretty cool and they could handle it; but it was in a sad state, quite ...
— Seven Little People and their Friends • Horace Elisha Scudder

... Spain, a nation with whom England was at peace, and this plunder was what is called Droits of the Admiralty, which is claimed by the crown; so that, when the crown chooses to become a robber upon the high seas, and plunders a state to enrich itself, the people of England are called upon to spill their best blood in defending an act which, if committed in common life, would entitle ...
— Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Volume 2 • Henry Hunt

... people personally, and grow more intimate every time we come. I even conceive they make favorites, for I had three pecking food out of my mouth to-day and refusing to take it in any other fashion, and they coo and say thank you before and after every seed they take or spill. They are quite the pleasantest of all the Italian ...
— An Englishwoman's Love-Letters • Anonymous

... zee meats," went on the amiable Pierre. "You haf nozzing to do wiz zee meats. You rest zee deesh on zee flat uf zee hand, so! Always sairve to zee right uf zee guest. Vatch zat i zay do not move vhile you sairve. You spill zee soup, and I keel you! To spill zee soup ees a crime. Now, take hold uf ...
— The Man on the Box • Harold MacGrath

... she does," answered Dermot; "she would spill her heart's blood for my sake, though she often sits melancholy and sad when alone, yet the moment I return, her eye brightens, and she opens her arms to receive me. Yes, lady, my mother does love ...
— The Heir of Kilfinnan - A Tale of the Shore and Ocean • W.H.G. Kingston

... replied Kells. "We'll divide the small bags first.... Ten shares—ten equal parts!... Spill out the bags. Blick. And hurry. Look how hungry Gulden looks!... Somebody cook your breakfast while we divide ...
— The Border Legion • Zane Grey

... want you to go, and have a nice time," Cora explained, "but I don't want you to upset. You should wear a bathing suit and be ready to swim in case of a spill." ...
— The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay - The Secret of the Red Oar • Margaret Penrose

... They were one of the hoarded treasures in her memory book, and she had hoped he would always remember to wave a farewell when he went away again. Now she had made him angry. Well, he had made her angry, too. She didn't intend to spill the candy; he ought to know that; but he had struck her. She was twelve years old now and this was the first licking. She had dreaded it all her life; and was just beginning to think she had grown beyond the age of whippings when the dreadful punishment had befallen her. No, it didn't hurt much, ...
— Tabitha at Ivy Hall • Ruth Alberta Brown

... walk so carefully, she wondered? She felt as though she were carrying a cup, full up to the brim of something. And she mustn't let it spill. What was it so full of? Aunt Hetty's ...
— The Brimming Cup • Dorothy Canfield Fisher

... won't hurt anybody," said the Deacon. "Plenty,—plenty,—plenty. There!" He had not withdrawn his glass, while the Colonel was pouring, for fear it should spill; and now it was ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... into the tunnel, Uma keeping tight hold of me, opened my lantern and lit the match. The first length of it burned like a spill of paper, and I stood stupid, watching it burn, and thinking we were going aloft with Tiapolo, which was none of my views. The second took to a better rate, though faster than I cared about; and at that I got my ...
— Island Nights' Entertainments • Robert Louis Stevenson

... reviving in them the veneration for Washington, a sentiment shared by both. The delivery of his oration on Washington as a means to that end was well meant, but pathetic in its complete futility to accomplish such a purpose. So small a spill of oil upon a sea so raging! He was a master of beautiful periods, and I desire here to record my testimony that he also possessed a power for off-hand speech. The tradition is that his utterances were all ...
— The Last Leaf - Observations, during Seventy-Five Years, of Men and Events in America - and Europe • James Kendall Hosmer

... with the greatest care, and noted each tree and mound as he took his way towards the beach. Night was coming on, as it does in those latitudes, very rapidly; and Ben had to hurry on for fear of not finding his hut, and at the same time to be very cautious not to spill the water out of his cocoa-nut. Oh that people would be as eager for the Water of Life, as little Ben was for the spring in that desert island, and would be tempted to return to it again and again to drink ...
— Ben Hadden - or, Do Right Whatever Comes Of It • W.H.G. Kingston

... falls, then picks himself up and gathers together the scattered bundles. But what of the other? A jug held tightly in both hands, he chooses his steps as would a dainty Coryphee. He dare not trip. He dare not fall. He MUST not spill one drop. Jugs are hard to replace in France; in fact, it is much easier to get a jug ...
— Private Peat • Harold R. Peat

... mind me well of the tear that fell from the eye of our noble Prince, And the things he said as he tucked me in bed—and I've lain there ever since; Tho' it all gets mixed up queerly that happened before my spill, —But I draw my thousand yearly: it'll pay for the ...
— From a Cornish Window - A New Edition • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... time," she laughed a trifle awkwardly. "And as for not drinking anything. . . . Look out or you'll spill what Papa Marquette is ...
— Wolf Breed • Jackson Gregory

... could take the curse of ugliness off the staring gray walls of the room, or from the horrible turkey-red and white canton-flannel quilt that bedecked the bed. Nan longed to spill the contents of her ink bottle over that hideous ...
— Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp - or, The Old Lumberman's Secret • Annie Roe Carr

... of the chief showed his disappointment: "That's what I get for thinking I had a real surprise up my sleeve. You sit back with that innocent kid face of yours and let me spill all the dope—and then tell me perfectly matter-of-factly that you knew it all the time. How'd you ever get wise to the ...
— Midnight • Octavus Roy Cohen

... head of the stairs, I first gave my attention to the etagere. This piece of furniture was simply a pedestal of shelves, without sides, front, or back, so that to tilt it in any direction far out of the perpendicular would mean to spill its burden of old ...
— The Paternoster Ruby • Charles Edmonds Walk

... therewithal their bucklers cover o'er. Wherefore, when swooping down again, they fill the curved shore With noise, Misenus blows the call from off a watch-stead high With hollow brass; our folk fall on and wondrous battle try, 240 Striving that sea-fowl's filthy folk with point and edge to spill. But nought will bite upon their backs, and from their feathers still Glanceth the sword, and swift they flee up 'neath the stars of air, Half-eaten meat and token foul leaving behind them there. But on a rock exceeding high ...
— The AEneids of Virgil - Done into English Verse • Virgil

... to the Cadran bleu, treat her to mushrooms on toast, and then go to the Ambigu-Comique in the evening; you pawn your watch to buy her a shawl. I need not remind you of the fiddle-faddle sentimentality that goes down so well with all women; you spill a few drops of water on your stationery, for instance; those are the tears you shed while far away from her. You look to me as if you were perfectly acquainted with the argot of the heart. Paris, you see, is like a forest in the New World, where you have to deal with a score of varieties ...
— Father Goriot • Honore de Balzac

... rocked sideways to reach my hip- pocket, contriving to jog his elbow and spill what was already in the cup. He turned his head to curse savagely, and I showed him the folded sheet from my notebook. His name was on ...
— Jimgrim and Allah's Peace • Talbot Mundy

... fair, bright smile crawl from one of that innocent's ears to the other-you should have marked that face sprinkle, all over with dimples-you ought to have beheld the tears of joy jump glittering into her eyes and spill all over her father's clean shirt that he hadn't had on more than fifteen minutes! Cady Stanton is impotent of evil in the Grile family so long as the price of ...
— The Fiend's Delight • Dod Grile

... Ninkum, you are very rude," she said, much vexed. "You try to spill me off, besides making Grandmother Van Stark feel as though you didn't have enough to eat while you were ...
— What Two Children Did • Charlotte E. Chittenden

... now there has been a flow of water from your bathroom, which has penetrated through the ceiling of my bathroom, particularly after you have been using the room in the mornings. May I therefore beg you to be more careful in future not to splash or spill water on your floor, seeing that it causes inconvenience ...
— The Sunny Side • A. A. Milne

... Sergeant Mullins, out on a hike with some of the rookies from the camp, the sound of his approach deadened by the putting of the machine, appeared around the turn in the road, coming toward them. To keep from running into the men, which would have meant a nasty spill, the motorcyclist was forced ...
— The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House • Laura Lee Hope

... can see an F. O. Z. watch-charm on your pocket; and, finally, I knew that you scraped the incipient spinach off your mug very rapidly this morning because I can see three large recent razor-cuts on your chin and jaws! Perfectly easy when you know how!" And old Hemlock winked at me. "So spill out your little story to me, one mouthful at a time, and don't get all balled up while you're telling it ...
— The Adventures of the Eleven Cuff-Buttons • James Francis Thierry

... stiffen yourse'f up with a Colt's '44, an' lay for this Texas Thompson. He's a rustler an' a hoss-thief, an' a murderer who, as he says, has planted forty-two, not countin' Injuns, Mexicans an' mavericks. He oughter be massacred; an' as it's come your way, why prance in an' spill his blood. This camp'll justify ...
— Wolfville Days • Alfred Henry Lewis

... still fail to see what is to spoil the rug. Does the villain set fire to the conservatory in this play, or does he assassinate the virtuous hero here and spill ...
— The Bicyclers and Three Other Farces • John Kendrick Bangs



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