different between spoil vs wither

English

Etymology

From Middle English spoilen, spuylen, borrowed from Old French espoillier, espollier, espuler, from Latin spoli?re, present active infinitive of spoli? (“pillage, ruin, spoil”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: spoil, IPA^(key): /sp??l/

• Rhymes: -??l

Verb

spoil (third-person singular simple present spoils, present participle spoiling, simple past and past participle spoiled or spoilt)

1. (transitive, archaic) To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of their arms or armour. [from 14th c.]
2. (transitive, archaic) To strip or deprive (someone) of their possessions; to rob, despoil. [from 14th c.]
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts 9:21:

     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.
3. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.). [from 14th c.]

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

4. (transitive, obsolete) To carry off (goods) by force; to steal. [14th-19th c.]
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Mark 3.27,^[1]

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

   • 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 35,^[2]

     They must likewise endeavour to be careful in looking after the rest of the Servants, that every one perform their duty in their several places, that they keep good hours in their up-rising and lying down, and that no Goods be either spoiled or embezelled.

   • 1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Chapter 38,^[3]

     […] it was her own knife; little sister Mary had left it to her upon her deathbed, and she ought to have had it to keep herself long ago. But mama kept it from her, and was always letting Betsey get hold of it; and the end of it would be that Betsey would spoil it, and get it for her own, though mama had promised her that Betsey should not have it in her own hands.

5. (transitive) To ruin; to damage (something) in some way making it unfit for use. [from 16th c.]
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living

     Spiritual pride […] spoils so 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.’

6. (transitive) To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess. [from 17th c.]
7. (intransitive) Of food, to become bad, sour or rancid; to decay. [from 17th c.]

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

8. (transitive) To render (a ballot paper) invalid by deliberately defacing it. [from 19th c.]
   • 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.

9. (transitive) To reveal the ending or major events of (a story etc.); to ruin (a surprise) by exposing it ahead of time.
10. (aviation) To reduce the lift generated by an airplane or wing by deflecting air upwards, usually with a spoiler.

Synonyms

• (ruin): damage, destroy, ruin
• (coddle): coddle, pamper, indulge, mollycoddle

Related terms

• despoil

Translations

Noun

spoil (plural spoils)

1. (Also in plural: spoils) Plunder taken from an enemy or victim.
2. (uncountable) Material (such as rock or earth) removed in the course of an excavation, or in mining or dredging. Tailings. Such material could be utilised somewhere else.

Synonyms

• (plunder taken from an enemy or victim): See Thesaurus:booty
• (material moved): gangue, slag, tailings

Derived terms

• spoiler

Translations

See also

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

References

• spoil at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• -polis, Polis, polis

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?w?ð?/; enPR: w?th??r
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?w?ð?/
• Rhymes: -?ð?(?)
• Homophone: whither (some accents)

Etymology 1

From Middle English widren, wydderen (“to dry up, shrivel”), related to or perhaps an alteration of Middle English wederen (“to expose to weather”), from Old English wederian (“to expose to weather, exhibit a change of weather”).

Verb

wither (third-person singular simple present withers, present participle withering, simple past and past participle withered)

1. (intransitive) To shrivel, droop or dry up, especially from lack of water.
2. (transitive) To cause to shrivel or dry up.

   • There was a man which had his hand withered.

   • now warm in love, now with'ring in the grave

3. (intransitive, figuratively) To lose vigour or power; to languish; to pass away.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Expostulation

     States thrive or wither as moons wax and wane.

4. (intransitive) To become helpless due to emotion.
5. (transitive) To make helpless due to emotion.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Usage notes

• Not to be confused with whither.

Derived terms

• wither away

Translations

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

wither (plural withers)

1. singular of withers (“part of the back of a four-legged animal that is between the shoulder blades”)
   • 2007, Sara Douglass, Enchanter, Macmillan (?ISBN):

     Timozel had slid his feet quickly from the stirrups and swung his leg over the horse's wither as it slumped to the ground, standing himself in one graceful movement.

   • 2008, Kate Luxmoore, Introduction to Equestrian Sports (?ISBN), page 140:

     If a saddle tips too far forward it may rest on the horse's wither and cause pain. There should always be a gap of roughly 5 cm between the horse's wither and the pommel when you are sitting on the saddle.

Etymology 3

From Middle English wither, from Old English wiþer (“again, against”, adverb in compounds), from Proto-West Germanic *wiþr (“against, toward”).

Adverb

wither (comparative more wither, superlative most wither)

1. (obsolete or chiefly in compounds) Against, in opposition to.

Etymology 4

From Middle English witheren, from Old English wiþerian (“to resist, oppose, struggle against”).

Verb

wither (third-person singular simple present withers, present participle withering, simple past and past participle withered)

1. (obsolete) To go against, resist; oppose.

Anagrams

• whiter, writhe