Verb

(archaic) To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of their arms or armour.

(archaic) To strip or deprive (someone) of their possessions; to rob, despoil.

* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. (Bible) , (w) IX:

All that herde hym wer amased and sayde: ys nott this he that spoylled them whych called on this name in Jerusalem?

* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , VII:

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.

*, I.2.4.vii:

Roger, that rich Bishop of Salisbury,through grief ran mad, spoke and did he knew not what.

(ambitransitive, archaic) To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.).

* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

Outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil .

(obsolete) To carry off (goods) by force; to steal.

* (Bible), (w) iii. 27

No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man.

To ruin; to damage (something) in some way making it unfit for use.

* (Jeremy Taylor) (1613–1677)

Spiritual pride spoils many graces.

*

"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. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. […]"

* 2011 , ‘What the Arab papers say’, The Economist , 5 Aug 2011:

‘This is a great day for us. 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.’

To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess.

Of food, to become bad, sour or rancid; to decay.

Make sure you put the milk back in the fridge, otherwise it will spoil .

To render (a ballot paper) invalid by deliberately defacing it.

* 2003 , David Nicoll, The Guardian , letter:

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.

To reveal the ending of (a story etc.); to ruin (a surprise) by exposing it ahead of time.

Verb

(es)

To make smaller.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-12-14

, author=Simon Jenkins, authorlink=Simon Jenkins, volume=188, issue=2, page=23 , date=2012-12-21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys , passage=The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.}}

To become smaller.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.

To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken.

* Robynson (More's Utopia)

This doth nothing diminish their opinion.

* Bible, Ezekiel xxix. 15

I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.

* Milton

O thou at whose sight all the stars / Hide their diminished heads.

To taper.

To disappear gradually.

To take away; to subtract.

* Bible, Deuteronomy iv. 2

Neither shall ye diminish aught from it.

(music) To reduce a perfect or minor interval by a semitone.