Forms: 4 spille, 5–6 spyll(e, 6–7 spil, 7– spill. [Of doubtful origin; app. in some way related to SPILE sb.2]
1. A splinter; a sharp-pointed fragment of wood, bone, etc.; a slip or sliver.
c. 1300. Beket, 850. We suspendieth such consail, for hit his noȝt worth a Spille.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 11119. Pirrus with payn puld of his brest The spyll of his speire.
1550. T. Lever, Serm. (Arb.), 135. Beware … that ye staye not your selfe vnto a bryttell staffe, for it wyll brast in spylles and perce thorowe your handes.
1598. Hall Sat., IV. iii. What boots it … to reserve their relics many years, Their silver spurs, or spils of broken spears.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 283. This herb … draweth forth of the body any spils whatsoeuer.
1658. J. Jones, Ovid’s Ibis, 43. Divine justice … maketh … the spils of the staff on which he leaned to run into his hands.
1748. in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr., App. II. 123. Taking out all such lints, spills, and other things which will not receive the dye.
1846. Holtzapffel, Turning, II. 527. To preserve the edge of the tool, thin spills of hard wood are sometimes placed between the cutter and the bar.
1863. Gd. Words, April, 282/1. Like what are called spills in the game of spillikins.
fig. 1600. Holland, Livy, VII. xxi. 263. This matter of usurie, the onely spill or bone (as it were) between, that seemed to hinder the uniting of their hearts.
b. techn. (See quot.)
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 197. The scrap-iron is sometimes twisted during the process of manufacture, to lay all the filaments like a rope, and prevent the formation of spills, or the longitudinal dirty seams found on the surface of inferior iron.
2. A thin slip of wood, a folded or twisted piece of paper, used for lighting a candle, pipe, etc.
1839. Sir G. C. Lewis, Gloss. Heref., s.v., Long thin splinters of wood used in farm houses for lighting candles are called spills.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xxxvi. She had separated a slip of paper for lighting tapers—a spill, as it is called—into fragments.
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., I. 68. The children stand in a ring, one lights a spill of paper and passes it on.
b. attrib. and Comb., as spill-box, -case, cup, -holder, pot.
1847. Alb. Smith, Stuck-up People, 84. It was termed a spill-case, to be sold, with similar ones, at a guinea the pair.
1859. F. S. Cooper, Ironmongers’ Catal., 181. Spill Cups.
1860. Miss Yonge, Hopes & Fears, I. x. 362. The … well-filled spill-holder and match-box on the mantel-shelf.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 6860, Several pairs of spill pots, various designs.
1866. Mrs. Riddell, Race for Wealth, xix. He has got a clock on the mantel-shelf,… and spill-boxes,… and cigar-cases.
c. ellipt. A spill-holder in the form of a cylindrical jar; also, an umbrella-holder of similar form.
1895. Army & Navy Soc. Price List, 15 Sept., 318. Oriental Goods:… Spills: 6 in., pair 1/8. Ibid., Umbrella Spills, 25 in. high, 9 in. diameter.
3. techn. (See quot. and cf. SPILE sb.2 3.)
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Spill (Shipwrighting), a small peg used to stop the hole left by a spike when drawn out.
4. Mining. (See quot.)
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Spills, Corn[wall]. Long thick laths or poles driven ahead horizontally around the door-frames, in running levels in loose ground.
