Spit vs Spill - What's the difference?
spit | spill |
A rod on which meat is grilled (UK English) or broiled (US English).
A narrow, pointed, usually sandy peninsula.
* 1881 , :
The depth to which a spade goes in digging; a spade; a spadeful.
To impale on a spit.
* Shakespeare
To attend to a spit; to use a spit.
To spade; to dig.
(transitive) To evacuate (saliva or another substance) from the mouth.
* 1994 , (Stephen Fry), (The Hippopotamus) Chapter 2
To rain or snow slightly, or with sprinkles.
* Charles Dickens
To utter violently.
* 1915 , , Shadows of Flames , page 240 [http://books.google.com/books?id=-9AcAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA240&dq=spat]:
* 2004 , edition, ISBN 0743483790, chapter 3, page 23 [http://books.google.com/books?id=d9F9MUiOQD4C&pg=PA23&dq=spat]:
(transitive, slang, hip-hop) To utter.
* 2005 , Giselle Zado Wasfie, So Fly
(uncountable) Saliva]], especially when [[expectorate, expectorated.
(countable) An instance of spitting.
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
As nouns the difference between spit and spill
is that spit is a rod on which meat is grilled (uk english) or broiled (us english) or spit can be (uncountable) saliva]], especially when [[expectorate|expectorated while spill is game, activity.As a verb spit
is to impale on a spit or spit can be (transitive) to evacuate (saliva or another substance) from the mouth.spit
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) spitu , from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- Or perhaps he may see a group of washerwomen relieved, on a spit of shingle, against the blue sea [..]
- (Halliwell)
Verb
(spitt)- to spit a loin of veal
- infants spitted upon pikes
- She's spitting in the kitchen.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) spittan, from (etyl) (compare Danish spytte, Swedish spotta), from (etyl) Ayto, John, Dictionary of Word Origins , Arcade Publishing, New York, 1990, of imitiative origin (see spew)spew], [[w:Online Etymology Dictionary, Online Etymology Dictionary], Douglas Harper
Verb
- Don't spit on the street.
- The teacher told her to spit out her bubble gum.
- At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth, stepped back from the tree and listened. There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles, only a gentle tinkle from the decorations as the tree had recovered from the collision.
- It had been spitting with rain.
- "Why, you little emasculated Don Juan— You—" he spat an unmentionable name— "d'you think I'd fight one of your tin-soldier farces with you? Clear out!"
- "Gentleman? You?" he spat .
- A group of black guys were spitting rhymes in the corner, slapping hands and egging one another on.
Usage notes
* Spit'' as the past form is common only in the US, while ''spat is common everywhere.Synonyms
* expectorateDerived terms
* spit it out * spit nails * spitting chips * spitting distanceNoun
- There was spit all over the washbasin.
Synonyms
* expectoration, salivaDerived terms
* spitball * spit-cup * spitshine * spittoon * spit wadAnagrams
* * *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)