Spell vs Spill - What's the difference?
spell | spill |
(obsolete) Speech, discourse.
Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.
A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.
(obsolete) To speak, to declaim.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.ii:
(obsolete) To tell; to relate; to teach.
* T. Warton
To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
* Dryden
* Sir G. Buck
(obsolete) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.
* 1851 , :
To be able to write or say the letters that form words.
Of letters: to compose (a word).
* {{quote-book, year=2008, author=Helen Fryer, title=The Esperanto Teacher
, isbn=9780554320076, page=13, publisher=BiblioBazaar, LLC, passage=In Esperanto each letter has only one sound, and each sound is represented in only one way. The words are pronounced exactly as spelt , every letter being sounded.}}
(figuratively) To indicate that (some event) will occur.
* 2003 , U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbel, Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation , ISBN 1422334120:
To constitute; to measure.
* Fuller
To work in place of (someone).
To rest (someone or something).
A shift (of work); a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.
A period of (work or other activity).
*
, title= * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 22, author=Sam Sheringham, work=BBC Sport
, title= An indefinite period of time (usually with some qualifying word).
* 1975 , (Bob Dylan), (Tangled Up in Blue)
A period of rest; time off.
(US) A period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc.
(cricket) An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler.
To drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to pour.
To spread out or fall out, as above.
* Isaac Watts
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
To mar; to damage; to destroy by misuse; to waste.
* Puttenham
* Fuller
(obsolete) To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste.
* Chaucer
To cause to flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed.
* Dryden
To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay.
(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.
(countable) A mess of something that has been dropped.
A fall or stumble.
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 :
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.
(Australia, politics) A declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant, and open for re-election. Short form of (l)
game, play
Spill is a alternative form of spell.
In obsolete terms the difference between spell and spill
is that spell is to tell; to relate; to teach while spill is a small sum of money.In intransitive terms the difference between spell and spill
is that spell is to be able to write or say the letters that form words while spill is to spread out or fall out, as above.In transitive terms the difference between spell and spill
is that spell is to rest (someone or something) while spill is to drop something that was intended to be caught.spell
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) spel, spellian, spelian, from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- He cast a spell to cure warts.
- under a spell
Synonyms
* (words or formula supposed to have magical powers) cantrip, incantation * (magical effect induced by an incantation or formula) cantripVerb
(en verb)- O who can tell / The hidden power of herbes, and might of Magicke spell ?
- Might I that legend find, / By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes.
- Spelled with words of power.
- He was much spelled with Eleanor Talbot.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
- "He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.
- I find it difficult to spell because I'm dyslexic.
- The letters “a”, “n” and “d” spell “and”.
citation
- This spells trouble.
- Please spell it out for me.
- When we get elected, for instance, we get one of these, and we are pretty much told what is in it, and it is our responsibility to read it and understand it, and if we do not, the Ethics Committee, we can call them any time of day and ask them to spell it out for us
- the Saxon heptarchy, when seven kings put together did spell but one in effect
Derived terms
* speller * spelling * spelloSynonyms
* (to indicate that some event will occur) forebode; mean; signify * (to work in place of someone else) relieve * (to compose a word) (informal) compriseEtymology 3
Origin uncertain; perhaps a form of (speld).Etymology 4
From (etyl) spelen, from (etyl) .Verb
- to spell the helmsman
- They spelled the horses and rested in the shade of some trees near a brook.
Noun
(en noun)Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.}}
Liverpool 0-1 West Brom, passage=Despite his ill-fated spell at Anfield, he received a warm reception from the same Liverpool fans he struggled to win over before being sacked midway through last season.}}
- I had a job in the great North Woods
- Workin' as a cook for a spell .
- But I never did like it all that much
- And one day the ax just fell.
Derived terms
* dry spell * set a spellQuotations
* (English Citations of "spell")Anagrams
* 1000 English basic words ----spill
English
Verb
- I spilled some sticky juice on the kitchen floor.
- Some sticky juice spilled onto the kitchen floor.
- He was so topful of himself, that he let it spill on all the company.
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.}}
- They [the colours] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship.
- Spill not the morning, the quintessence of day, in recreations.
- That thou wilt suffer innocents to spill .
- to revenge his blood so justly spilt
- (Spenser)
Derived terms
* spiller * spill blood * spill one's seed * spill out * spill over * spill the beansNoun
(en noun)- The bruise is from a bad spill he had last week.
- Kit froze with the pipe between his teeth, the relit spill pressed to the weed within it.
- (Ayliffe)