What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Spoil vs Smirch - What's the difference?

spoil | smirch | Related terms |

Spoil is a related term of smirch.


As verbs the difference between spoil and smirch

is that spoil is (archaic) to strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of their arms or armour while smirch is to.

As nouns the difference between spoil and smirch

is that spoil is (also in plural: spoils ) plunder taken from an enemy or victim while smirch is dirt.

spoil

English

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.

    • Synonyms

    * (ruin) damage, destroy, ruin * (coddle) coddle, indulge, mollycoddle

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Also in plural: spoils ) Plunder taken from an enemy or victim.
  • (uncountable) Material (such as rock or earth) removed in the course of an excavation, or in mining or dredging]]. [[tailings, Tailings.

    • Derived terms

    * spoiler

    See also

    * spoilage * spoils of war * spoilsport * spoilt * too many cooks spoil the broth

    Anagrams

    *

    smirch

    English

    Etymology 1

    Attested since the 15th Century .

    Noun

  • Dirt
  • * 1998 , Michael Foss, People of the First Crusade , page 6, ISBN 1559704551.
  • *:Too often, in the years between 800 and 1050, the everyday sun declined through the smirch of flame and smoke of a monastery or town robbed and burnt.
  • (of a reputation) Stain
  • * 2008 , W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk , page 33, ISBN 1604502061.
  • *:there were some business transactions which savored of dangerous speculation, if not dishonesty; and around it all lay the smirch of the Freedmen's Bank.

    • Verb

    (es)
  • To .
  • * 1600 , Scene III
    • CELIA. I'll put myself in poor and mean attire,
    And with a kind of umber smirch my face;
    The like do you; so shall we pass along,
    And never stir assailants.
    Synonyms
    * besmirch * soil
    Derived terms
    * besmirch

    References

    *

    Etymology 2

    Meld of smear and chirp
  • A chirp of radiation power from an astronomical body that has a smeared appearance om its plot in the time-frequency plane (usually associated with massive bodies orbiting supermassive black holes)
  • *2003 , B. S. Sathyaprakash, BF Schutz, "Templates for stellar mass black holes falling into supermassive black holes", Classical and Quantum Gravity , volume 20, no. 10
  • *:The strain h''(''t'') produced by a smirch in LISA is given by ''h''(''t'') = −-''A''(''t'')cos[(''t'') + ?(''t )]
  • *2005 , John M. T. Thompson, Advances in Astronomy: From the Big Bang to the Solar System , page 133, ISBN 1860945775.
  • *:By observing a smirch , LISA offers a unique opportunity to directly map the spacetime geometry around the central object and test whether or not this structure is in accordance with the expectations of general realtivity.

    • Anagrams

    *