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Spill vs Scatter - What's the difference?

spill | scatter |

In transitive terms the difference between spill and scatter

is that spill is to drop something that was intended to be caught while scatter is to distribute loosely as by sprinkling.

In intransitive terms the difference between spill and scatter

is that spill is to spread out or fall out, as above while scatter is to occur or fall at widely spaced intervals.

As a noun spill

is a mess of something that has been dropped.

spill

English

Verb

  • To drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to pour.
    • I spilled some sticky juice on the kitchen floor.
  • To spread out or fall out, as above.
    • Some sticky juice spilled onto the kitchen floor.
  • * Isaac Watts
    • He was so topful of himself, that he let it spill on all the company.
  • To drop something that was intended to be caught.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 29 , author=Neil Johnston , title=Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=That should have been that, but Hart caught a dose of the Hennessey wobbles and spilled Adlene Guedioura's long-range shot.}}
  • To mar; to damage; to destroy by misuse; to waste.
  • * Puttenham
    • They [the colours] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship.
  • * Fuller
    • Spill not the morning, the quintessence of day, in recreations.
  • (obsolete) To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste.
  • * Chaucer
    • That thou wilt suffer innocents to spill .
  • To cause to flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed.
  • * Dryden
    • to revenge his blood so justly spilt
  • To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay.
    • (Spenser)
  • (nautical) 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.

    • Derived terms

    * spiller * spill blood * spill one's seed * spill out * spill over * spill the beans

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable) A mess of something that has been dropped.
  • A fall or stumble.
    • The bruise is from a bad spill he had last week.
  • A small stick or piece of paper used to light a candle, cigarette etc by the transfer of a flame from a fire.
  • * 2008 , Elizabeth Bear, Ink and Steel: A Novel of the Promethean Age :
    • Kit froze with the pipe between his teeth, the relit spill pressed to the weed within it.
  • A slender piece of anything.
  • # A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask; a spile.
  • # A metallic rod or pin.
  • (mining) One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.
  • The situation where sound is picked up by a microphone from a source other than that which is intended.
  • (obsolete) A small sum of money.
    • (Ayliffe)
  • (Australia, politics) A declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant, and open for re-election. Short form of (l)

    • Quotations

    * (English Citations of "spill")

    Derived terms

    * spill one's seed * spillway * take a spill

    Anagrams

    * English ergative verbs ---- ==Norwegian Bokmål==

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Noun

  • game, play

    • Inflection

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Verb

    (head)

    • See also

    * (spel) ----

    scatter

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (ergative) To (cause to) separate and go in different directions; to disperse.
    • the police scattered the crowds
    the crowd scattered
  • * Shakespeare
    • Scatter and disperse the giddy Goths.
  • To distribute loosely as by sprinkling.
    • Her ashes were scattered at the top of a waterfall.
  • * Dryden
    • Why should my muse enlarge on Libyan swains, / Their scattered cottages, and ample plains?
  • (physics) To deflect (radiation or particles).
  • To occur or fall at widely spaced intervals.
  • To frustrate, disappoint, and overthrow.
    • to scatter hopes or plans

    Derived terms

    * scatterbrain * scatterplot * scattershot