Spoil (?), v. i. 1.
To practice plunder or robbery.
Outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used to break forth
to rob and spoil.
Spenser.
2. To lose the valuable qualities; to be
corrupted; to decay; as, fruit will soon spoil in warm
weather.
Spoil (?) (?), v. t. [imp. &
p. p. Spoiled (#) or Spoilt (#); p.
pr. & vb. n. Spoiling.] [F. spolier, OF.
espoilelier, fr. L. spoliare, fr. spolium spoil.
Cf. Despoil, Spoliation.] 1. To
plunder; to strip by violence; to pillage; to rob; -- with of
before the name of the thing taken; as, to spoil one of his
goods or possession. "Ye shall spoil the Egyptians."
Ex. iii. 22.
My sons their old, unhappy sire despise,
Spoiled of his kingdom, and deprived of eues.
Pope.
2. To seize by violence;; to take by force; to
plunder.
No man can enter into a strong man's house, and
spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong
man.
Mark iii. 27.
3. To cause to decay and perish; to corrput;
to vitiate; to mar.
Spiritual pride spoils many graces.
Jer. Taylor.
4. To render useless by injury; to injure
fatally; to ruin; to destroy; as, to spoil paper; to have the
crops spoiled by insects; to spoil the eyes by
reading.
Spoil, n. [Cf. OF. espoille, L.
spolium.] 1. That which is taken from
another by violence; especially, the plunder taken from an enemy;
pillage; booty.
Gentle gales,
Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Those balmy spoils.
Milton.
2. Public offices and their emoluments
regarded as the peculiar property of a successful party or faction, to
be bestowed for its own advantage; -- commonly in the plural; as to
the victor belong the spoils.
From a principle of gratitude I adhered to the
coalition; my vote was counted in the day of battle, but I was
overlooked in the division of the spoil.
Gibbon.
3. That which is gained by strength or
effort.
each science and each art his
spoil.
Bentley.
4. The act or practice of plundering; robbery;
aste.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treason, stratagems, and spoil.
Shak.
5. Corruption; cause of corruption.
[Archaic]
Villainous company hath been the spoil of
me.
Shak.
6. The slough, or cast skin, of a serpent or
other animal. [Obs.] Bacon.
Spoil bank, a bank formed by the earth taken
from an excavation, as of a canal. -- The spoils
system, the theory or practice of regarding public and
their emoluments as so much plunder to be distributed among their
active partisans by those who are chosen to responsible offices of
administration.