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Spoil   /spɔɪl/   Listen
Spoil

noun
1.
(usually plural) valuables taken by violence (especially in war).
2.
The act of spoiling something by causing damage to it.  Synonyms: spoilage, spoiling.
3.
The act of stripping and taking by force.  Synonyms: despoilation, despoilment, despoliation, spoilation, spoliation.



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"Spoil" Quotes from Famous Books



... one afternoon altogether, and it was only some trifling little piece of attention on his part that did it. 'You spoil me,' I cried; 'I have never had any one to care for my likes or dislikes before. You will make me selfish, Philip. Don't be ...
— Dwell Deep - or Hilda Thorn's Life Story • Amy Le Feuvre

... to school with the character of a wilful, wicked little vixen, and she has not belied her character. By gross disobedience she has brought herself to where you see her. 'Spare the rod, spoil the child,' is a scriptural maxim, and the foolish parents who ruin their children by overindulgence deserve all that comes to them. But there is no reason why other people should suffer, and, small as this child is she has made the ...
— The Woman Thou Gavest Me - Being the Story of Mary O'Neill • Hall Caine

... the Pacific, and thence eastward well towards Guatemala. They began with those nearest in position, whom they overcame, through superior numbers, and concentrated action, and subjected to tribute. These forays were continued from time to time for the avowed object of gathering spoil, imposing tribute and capturing prisoners for sacrifice, until the principal tribes within the area named, with some exceptions, were subdued ...
— The Prehistoric World - Vanished Races • E. A. Allen

... that rode by upon the blast had seen the row of white faces, and it angered them to be thus stared at, and they rode their airy steeds full tilt against the thin rampart of glass that protected the human weaklings from becoming the spoil of their terrors. ...
— Adela Cathcart - Volume II • George MacDonald

... I spoil her, but that is only because Kitty is quicker at saying a thing than I am. She is our only child; and I sometimes wonder, at moments of acute mental introspection (say, in the night watches after an indigestible supper), what we should ...
— The Right Stuff - Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton • Ian Hay

... hollows of trees, and when it has found one, flies close to a man so as to attract his notice, then flutters in front of him to the nest, and waits for him to take the honey out of the hollow (which it cannot itself reach), expecting and receiving a share of the spoil.] ...
— Impressions of South Africa • James Bryce

... successful sortie from the fort compelled the British to look to the defense of their own camp. Colonel Willet in this sally killed a number of the enemy, destroyed their provisions, carried off some spoil, and returned to the fort without the loss of a man. Besides the loss of the brave General Herkimer, who was slain, the number of the killed was computed at 400. St. Leger, imitating the grandiloquent style of Burgoyne, again summoned the fort to surrender, but Colonel Gansevoort ...
— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing

... agitation and dismay of the culprit, as well as by this refusal, the gentleman gave him at once into the hands of the police, who had no difficulty in finding the fatal mark of infamy. He was, indeed, an escaped convict, and the wealth with which he had dazzled the good provincials was the spoil of a recent robbery, undertaken by himself and some Parisian accomplices, and so cleverly managed as to have set at naught hitherto the best efforts of the ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 8, January, 1851 • Various

... paternal, and indulgently consented. Words of man cannot describe the mass of millinery and chiffonery in that chamber. The spaces that were not piled high with vesture gave resting spots for cardboard boxes and packing-paper. Antoinette stood in a corner gazing at the spoil with a smile of beatific idiocy. I strode through the cardboard boxes which crackled like bracken, and remained dumb as a fish before these mysteries. Carlotta tried on hats. She shewed me patent leather shoes. She exhibited blouses and petticoats until my eyes ached. ...
— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke

... greedy old tramp of a cat: "I declare, I heard someone say 'scat!' Of course I might run; But t'would spoil all this fun, And I don't see much reason ...
— The Book of the Cat • Mabel Humphrey and Elizabeth Fearne Bonsall

... old, who do as Bessie did: instead of being contented with the state of life in which God has placed them, and doing their best to make themselves and others happy, they let this little word "if" creep in on every occasion, and in too many cases spoil not one day only, ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various

... of her, he pulls out his pipe, lights it, and commences smoking, apparently without, further thought of the form at his feet. That spoil is not for him. ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid

... how it had come about. He felt that he himself was unchanged, that he was still there, the same man he had been five years ago, and that he was sitting stupidly by and letting some resolute offshoot of himself spoil his life for him. This new force was not he, it was but a part of him. He would not even admit that it was stronger than he; but it was more active. It was by its energy that this new feeling got the better of him. ...
— Alexander's Bridge and The Barrel Organ • Willa Cather and Alfred Noyes

... Placidia her mother. Though, it seems, the Hun disdained her, he made this appeal his excuse. Within a year of the death of Theodosius and Placidia he decided that the way of least resistance lay westward. If he were successful he could make his own terms, and, among his spoil, if he cared, should be the sister ...
— Ravenna, A Study • Edward Hutton

... unintelligent and on the backs of those whom for any reason of race or prejudice or chicane they could beat beyond the bars of competition; and finally the anger of the mass of white workers was turned toward these new black interlopers, who seemed to come to spoil their last dream of a great monopoly of ...
— Darkwater - Voices From Within The Veil • W. E. B. Du Bois

... beggarly vagabonds whom he enlisted, of Justice Shallow, &c. Falstaff has about him a whole court of amusing caricatures, who by turns make their appearance, without ever throwing him into the shade. The adventure in which the Prince, under the disguise of a robber, compels him to give up the spoil which he had just taken; the scene where the two act the part of the King and the Prince; Falstaff's behaviour in the field, his mode of raising recruits, his patronage of Justice Shallow, which afterwards takes ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art - and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel trans John Black

... he did not spoil them, but I just think he did," she whispered. "I think it spoils tickets to have a hole made in them, don't you, Aunt Emma? Now spose they are not good any more, how shall we get to school? Will they put us off ...
— Ruby at School • Minnie E. Paull

... saw and counteracted his manoeuvre. Leaving Aristides, and the troops of his tribe, to guard the spoil and the slain, the Athenian commander led his conquering army by a rapid night-march back across the country to Athens. And when the Persian fleet had doubled the Cape of Sunium and sailed up to the Athenian harbor in the morning, Datis saw ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1 • Various

... say so—on top of that last stick, too!" The colonel had Irish as well as Virginian progenitors. "Well," he sighed, proceeding to make himself conditionally happy, "Moya will never forgive me! We spoil each other shamefully when we're alone, but of course we try to jack each other up when company comes. It's a great comfort to have some one to spoil, isn't it, now? I needn't ask which it is in ...
— The Desert and The Sown • Mary Hallock Foote

... grasped it: 'You're a hot-headed young fool, sir: you're an ill-tempered ferocious young ass. Can't you see another young donkey without joining company in kicks-eh? Sit down, and don't dare to spoil the fun any more. You a tailor! Who'll believe it? You're a nobleman in disguise. Didn't your friend say so?—ha! ha! Sit down.' He pulled out his watch, and proclaiming that he was born into this world at the hour about to strike, called for ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... too short, even if Caligula had troubled his head with the provinces, for him to spoil the good work done in them during the preceding half-cycle. He did not so trouble his head; being too busy murdering the pillars of Roman society. Then a gentleman who had been spending the afternoon ...
— The Crest-Wave of Evolution • Kenneth Morris

... is, in fact, a sort of male courtesan. Valerie's last fancy was a madness; above all, she was bent on getting her group; she was even thinking of going one morning to the studio to see Wenceslas, when a serious incident arose of the kind which, to a woman of that class, may be called the spoil of war. ...
— Cousin Betty • Honore de Balzac

... with a full tide,—it could not be that in the very moment of victory all should be lost through the base weakness of a young girl! Was it possible that her daughter,—the daughter of one who had spent the very marrow of her life in fighting for the position that was due to her,—should spoil all by preferring a journeyman tailor to a young nobleman of high rank, of ancient lineage, and one, too, who by his marriage with herself would endow her with wealth sufficient to make that rank splendid as well as illustrious? ...
— Lady Anna • Anthony Trollope

... the Indiaman had suffered considerably in the action; and since their arrival they had been undergoing repairs. These were now completed. The privateer's men were also refreshed, and eager to go in search of fresh spoil. ...
— Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships - A Story of the Last Naval War • W.H.G. Kingston

... but the theme is essentially the same. Both women belong to a class, not large, but forever clamoring in our ears, that demands more romance out of life than God put into it. Mr. G. Barnard Shaw would say that they are the victims of the over-idealization of love. They are the spoil of the poets, the Iphigenias of sentiment. The unfortunate feature of their disease is that it attacks only women of brains, at least of rudimentary brains, but whose development is one-sided; women of strong and fine intuitions, but without the faculty of observation, ...
— A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays • Willa Cather

... give occasion of offence. The lodges of the Cenis, forty or fifty feet high, and covered with a thatch of meadow- grass, looked like huge beehives. Each held several families, whose fire was in the middle, and their beds around the circumference. The spoil of the Spaniards was to be seen on all sides; silver lamps and spoons, swords, old muskets, money, clothing, and a Bull of the Pope dispensing the Spanish colonists of New Mexico from fasting during summer. ...
— France and England in North America, a Series of Historical Narratives, Part Third • Francis Parkman

... seemed to recoil from the rifles of the burghers. And then the years of prosperity, the years when the simple farmer found himself among the great ones of the earth, his name a household word in Europe, his State rich and powerful, his coffers filled with the spoil of the poor drudges who worked so hard and paid taxes so readily. Those were his great days, the days when he hardened his heart against their appeals for justice and looked beyond his own borders to his kinsmen in the hope ...
— The Great Boer War • Arthur Conan Doyle

... ought not to go, and she tried hard to convince him of the fact, telling him how much pleasure she had felt in observing his improved manner toward Mabel, and that he must not spoil it now. ...
— 'Lena Rivers • Mary J. Holmes

... "To marry a slap-up handsome woman like that, and then pretend not to know what it means when she bolts. Guess I'll spoil his ...
— The Yellow Crayon • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... islands were excellent, and in his person he merited everything. They were very desirous to appoint him archbishop of Manila, and it is even said that they begged him to accept rewards, and congratulated him. But that shadow was dissipated instantly, as there was not wanting an evil-minded person to spoil it all by a malicious tale. For father Fray Lorenzo de Leon had ever the name of a most devout religious; and as such the province of Filipinas, which at that time was most noted for its religious devotion, elected him as its superior and provincial. But who can free himself ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXIV, 1630-34 • Various

... in the same communication trench in reserve. The trench was five feet in width—in favourable spots it may have been six—and the bottom was deep in dust, which, to a certain extent, moderated the sharpness of ammunition pouches in the middle of one's back. From the heaps of piled-up spoil above came irregular avalanches of dust and dirt, and due care had to be taken to prevent it getting in one's ears, eyes, nose and mouth. Still, notwithstanding these minor discomforts, Mac had managed to get about an hour's sleep before matters became trying. The artillery were ...
— The Tale of a Trooper • Clutha N. Mackenzie

... in the bear before I believe in the gnome or kobold!" cried Dale. "Oh, Melchior! now I have so far had so much respect for you as a frank, manly Switzer, don't spoil it by trying to cloak an error with a paltry excuse. You did not properly secure the rope; it came off; and it was an accident. You know it was an ...
— The Crystal Hunters - A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps • George Manville Fenn

... words to say in dying! And what did the poor thief ask, that Dixmas of whom the church has made a saint for that one appeal: 'Remember me, Lord, in Thy kingdom!' But we have arrived. Stoop, that you may not spoil your hat. Now, what do you want with me? You know the motto of the Montfanons: 'Excelsior et firmior'—Always higher and always firmer.... One can never do too many good deeds. If it be possible, 'present', as we ...
— Cosmopolis, Complete • Paul Bourget

... him, that the Africans were torn from their country and their dearest connections, merely that they might lead a happier life; or that they could be placed under the uncontrolled dominion of others without suffering. Arbitrary power would spoil the hearts of the best. Hence would arise tyranny on the one side, and a sense of injury on the other. Hence the passions would be let loose, and a state of ...
— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808) • Thomas Clarkson

... 'if you don't want to come in, don't. But you need not spoil sport for all the rest of us. You and I will go in, Estelle, and Marjorie can ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various

... either from lack of comfort from you, or out of mere cowardice, fled away from the rebels on the first alarm." "Whereupon," says Cox, the Irish historian, "the Munsterians, generally, rebel in October, and kill, murder, ravish and spoil without mercy; and Tyrone made James Fitz-Thomas, Earl of Desmond, on condition to be tributary to him; he was the handsomest man of his time, and is commonly called the ...
— Spenser - (English Men of Letters Series) • R. W. Church

... 'Veniamus ad illam privatae Ecclesiae (?) largissimam frugalitatem.' 'Ecclesiae,' if it means here 'the Church,' seems to spoil the sense. Can Cassiodorus mean to compare the household of Theodahad to ...
— The Letters of Cassiodorus - Being A Condensed Translation Of The Variae Epistolae Of - Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator • Cassiodorus (AKA Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator)

... well fitted to endure the miseries of life as you are, from the wretchedness which his own visions, and the villainy of the world, are preparing for him? Why should I play the compassionate Indian, and, knocking out the brains of the captive with my tomahawk, at once spoil the three days' amusement of my kindred tribe, at the very moment when the brands were lighted, the pincers heated, the cauldrons boiling, the knives sharpened, to tear, scorch, seethe, and scarify the ...
— The Black Dwarf • Sir Walter Scott

... ruin my ship and spoil the whole trip," cried the old scientist. "Oh, why did I ever go to ...
— Five Thousand Miles Underground • Roy Rockwood

... the spirit of envy, which sprung up in his heart, he went on muttering to himself that he would soon spoil Miss Lucy's beauty. ...
— Norman Vallery - How to Overcome Evil with Good • W.H.G. Kingston

... to take Naples by surprise. A chosen company of Neapolitan infantry was sent against them. The troops from the fleet having little of the discipline of regular soldiery, and much of the freebooting disposition of maritime rovers, had scattered themselves about the country, intent chiefly upon spoil. They were attacked by the infantry and put to rout, with the loss of many killed and wounded. Endeavoring to make their way back to the ships, they found the passes seized and blocked up by the people of Sorento, who assailed them with dreadful havoc. ...
— The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II) • Washington Irving

... possession in Israel, and my princes shall no more oppress my people; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes. Thus saith the Lord God, Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel; remove violence and spoil and execute judgment and justice, and take away your exactions from my people, ...
— On The Structure of Greek Tribal Society: An Essay • Hugh E. Seebohm

... many generations respected in the city; his father was cultivated and had distinction as a citizen, who devoted his wealth and his energies to serving his fellow men. But, just as incredible adversity could not crush Abraham Lincoln, so lavish prosperity could not keep down or spoil ...
— Theodore Roosevelt; An Intimate Biography, • William Roscoe Thayer

... child's growth in her own fashion, and this should never be thwarted. Do not make him sit still when he wants to run about, nor run when he wants to be quiet. If we did not spoil our children's wills by our blunders their desires would be free from caprice. Let them run, jump, and shout to their heart's content. All their own activities are instincts of the body for its growth in strength; but you should regard with suspicion those wishes which they cannot carry out for ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau

... girl who will grow,' she must say, 'and who is worth my taking up!' But will she! Now here's that panic again! And can't you see, you little goose, this is just what may spoil everything? If you're scared, you'll lose! You've got to keep cool every minute she's here! Who is this Sally anyhow? What has she done that you won't do when you're as old as she is? . . . Yes, but don't you strike that note! No woman likes ...
— His Second Wife • Ernest Poole

... nests. We will build pretty houses which you will like to see. We will play about your gardens and flower-beds,—ourselves like flowers on wings,—without any cost to you. We will destroy the wicked insects and worms that spoil your cherries and currants and plums and apples and roses. We will give you our best songs and make the spring more beautiful and the summer sweeter to you. Every June morning when you go out to the field, Oriole and Blackbird and Bobolink will fly after you ...
— Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 • George Hoar

... worried about him that they told their mother, but she assured them that Danny would not come to spoil their fun. ...
— The Bobbsey Twins at School • Laura Lee Hope

... Spaniards. I do not say that there is no glory to be gained; but it is not personal glory. In itself, no cause was ever more glorious than that of men who struggle, not to conquer territory, not to gather spoil, not to gratify ambition, but for freedom, for religion, for hearth and home, and to revenge the countless atrocities inflicted upon them by their oppressors. After what I have said, do you still wish to embark ...
— By Pike and Dyke: A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic • G.A. Henty

... was able to protect his people, the national demoralisation grew worse and worse. An Oxford priest, who kept a school at Limerick, writing so late as 1566 of the Irish nobles, says—'Of late they spare neither churches nor hallowed places, but thence also they fill their hands with spoil—yea, and sometimes they set them on fire and kill the men that ...
— The Land-War In Ireland (1870) - A History For The Times • James Godkin

... to go into details," answered the Count, abruptly. "But if ever I acquire the power, I shall make a Jew smart for every drop of blood that flowed from the wound. Come, supper must be ready. We will not spoil our appetites by ...
— Rabbi and Priest - A Story • Milton Goldsmith

... do that, Mr. Crane," Shelby said, impulsively; "it would be anti-climax. You've done a big thing, and scored a success. Another book would spoil ...
— The Come Back • Carolyn Wells

... you meet your father. He's come a long ways to see you, and I'm damned if he shan't see you right. Remember you're stoppin' at my house as long as the old man stays, and if you make a break while he's here I'll spoil your mug for you. Bring him ...
— The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... why did not Elspeth strip him of them? And oh, if he must wear that absurd waistcoat, could she not see that it would look another thing if the second button was put half an inch farther back? How sinful of him to spoil the shape of his silly velvet jacket by carrying so many letters in the pockets! She learned afterwards that he carried all those letters because there was a check in one of them, he did not know which, and her sense of orderliness was outraged. Elspeth did not notice these things. She helped Tommy ...
— Tommy and Grizel • J.M. Barrie

... him I'll be in luck, and I'll try it, though they say he is awful vicious. Be quiet, Gray, or you'll spoil all." ...
— Beadle's Boy's Library of Sport, Story and Adventure, Vol. I, No. 1. - Adventures of Buffalo Bill from Boyhood to Manhood • Prentiss Ingraham

... done something wrong, which you ought to tell your parents about, do not go to sleep until you have told them. If you do, you will wake in the morning with dread, and you will go around all day with a dull ache which will spoil all the sunshine. Moreover, if you begin keeping secrets from your parents in this way you will have no one to check you in your misdeeds. Your parents may punish you, but they are the best friends you have. And besides, there is no punishment like hiding a feeling of guilt. The next best ...
— Fifty-Two Story Talks To Boys And Girls • Howard J. Chidley

... plan, which was approved both by the Prince and by two other great personages of the Court, all three agreeing together to share in the spoil. ...
— The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. V. (of V.) • Margaret, Queen Of Navarre

... is well under it; heave, and with a will; and so, after five minutes' tugging, propping, slipping, and splashing, the boulder gradually tips over, and we rush greedily upon the spoil. ...
— Glaucus; or The Wonders of the Shore • Charles Kingsley

... the effort would spoil his morning and urged him to remain where he was, at which he smiled with the care of a movie star, presenting an even, white line ...
— Alcatraz • Max Brand

... to himself, "that piece won't do. He knows too much English. Some of them words might strike him as bein' too usual, and he'd start to kill me, and spoil the whole thing. 'Munich' and 'chivalry' are snortin', but 'sun was low' ain't worth a damn. ...
— Red Men and White • Owen Wister

... said he, "Holmes, with all his wisdom, did not foresee some things which have happened since I have been on the moor. You understand me? I am sure that you are the last man in the world who would wish to be a spoil-sport. I must ...
— Hound of the Baskervilles • Authur Conan Doyle

... his amusement as he watched Wetherell's operations. "You'll spoil gran'ma," he remarked. "She'll be discontented with the agency doctor. I'm not discouragin' your massage operations, mind you, but I can't help thinking that she'll want clean towels, and an osteopath to stroke her back every morning, ...
— They of the High Trails • Hamlin Garland

... Don Timoteo, with a smile and a desire to choke him. "But they were made in Europe and are the most costly I could get in Manila! Spoil the walls!" Don Timoteo swore to himself that on the very next day he would present for payment all the chits that the critic ...
— The Reign of Greed - Complete English Version of 'El Filibusterismo' • Jose Rizal

... Bessie scornfully and coldly, tearing out the leaf as she spoke and crumpling it in her hand.—"Sorry to spoil your book, Fanny dear, but the sentiment would have spoiled it more. Let us ...
— On the Church Steps • Sarah C. Hallowell

... long since passed when Paris and the province formed two regions almost foreign to each other. To-day, thanks to the rapidity of communication, and the importations of all kinds which reach the centre from the circumference without having time to spoil on the way, Paris and the rest of France are only one immense body excited by the same opinions, dressed in the same fashions, laughing at the same bon mot, ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... that? Missus used to say the 'dear boys' came to the kitchen on a wet day, because they'd got NOTHING ELSE TO DO! Nothing else to do! and had learnt Latin and Greek, and all sorts of schooling besides! So much for education, thought I. Why, it would spoil the best lads that ever were born into the world. For, of course, you know if these young gentlemen had been put to decent trades, they'd have found something else to do with their fingers besides mischief and waste. And, dear me, ...
— Aunt Judy's Tales • Mrs Alfred Gatty

... Two or three times the Dervishes charged upon them, but the blacks were as steady as rocks, and their volleys were so fatal that the enemy finally left us alone, preferring to aid in the slaughter of the panic-stricken Egyptians, and to share the spoil. ...
— With Kitchener in the Soudan - A Story of Atbara and Omdurman • G. A. Henty

... shook him. The expression, a combination of sadness and scorn, which commonly held possession of his eyes, went out of them, leaving them radiant. "No," he said, "I will say nothing for you. I would not for worlds spoil your plea; prevent her hearing, from your own mouth, what you have to say. I will send her to you,"—and, going to a door, gave the order to a servant, "Desire Miss Francesca to come to the parlor." Then, motioning Surrey to the room, he went away, ...
— What Answer? • Anna E. Dickinson

... aside, with the remark "This is much too hard for me!", and thus losing the chance of adding a very large item to your stock of mental delights. This Rule (of not dipping) is very desirable with other kinds of books——such as novels, for instance, where you may easily spoil much of the enjoyment you would otherwise get from the story, by dipping into it further on, so that what the author meant to be a pleasant surprise comes to you as a matter of course. Some people, I know, make a practice of looking into Vol. III first, just to see how the ...
— Symbolic Logic • Lewis Carroll

... of the ancient civilizations, culminating in their latest and greatest representative, and displayed in its proud capital,—nearly all of which became later the spoil of barbarians, who ruthlessly marched over the classic world, having no regard for its choicest treasures. Those old glories are now indeed succeeded by a prouder civilization,—the work of nobler races ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume III • John Lord

... had he so soon forgotten her? Because she, who could assert her dignity firmly enough with others, had abandoned herself to him unresistingly after a few meetings, as if befooled by some magician's spell. The precious spoil so easily won had soon lost its value in his eyes. But to-day the fire which had died out blazed up again. Yes, this was the love he craved, he must have! To be loved with entire and utter devotion, with a heart that thought ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... I. The descendant of a bold Spanish buccaneer who came northwardly with his godless spoil, when all his raids upon West-Indian seas were done, and whose name had perhaps suffered a corruption at our Provincial lips. A man—this Helmar of to-day—about whom more strange tales were told than of the bloody buccaneer himself. That the walls of his house were ceiled with jewels, shedding ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 63, January, 1863 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... is simply this: that the teachers themselves have not got their own notions clear, and when they endeavour to make up for this by raking up motives of moral goodness from every quarter, trying to make their physic right strong, they spoil it. For the commonest understanding shows that if we imagine, on the one hand, an act of honesty done with steadfast mind, apart from every view to advantage of any kind in this world or another, and even under the greatest temptations of necessity or allurement, and, on ...
— Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals • Immanuel Kant

... both. "You spoil me, dears," she said; but Jemima's shrewdness made her wince, as ...
— Kildares of Storm • Eleanor Mercein Kelly

... there were two. There may be more—a gang of them, and remarkably clever fellows. But I'm getting sure that the desire to recover some hidden treasure, valuables, something of that sort, was at the bottom of it, and now I'm all the surer because of what we've found out about this monastic spoil. But there ...
— Ravensdene Court • J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher

... affects spiritualism and private theatricals. This leads to serious family difficulties, culminating in a domestic broil of unusual violence. The intellectual aim of the piece is to show the extraordinary loquacity of a Danish Prince. The moral inculcated by it is, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." It is replete with quotations from the best authors, and contains many passages of marked ability. Its literary merit is unquestionable, though it lacks the vivacity of BOUCICAULT, and possesses no situation of such intense interest as the scene ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 2, April 9, 1870 • Various

... the little poodle dog to run after. But Roly had been sent away for a few weeks, until the gardens had begun to grow. For Roly never could see a nicely smoothed patch of ground without wanting to dig in it, and spoil it. ...
— Daddy Takes Us to the Garden - The Daddy Series for Little Folks • Howard R. Garis

... way to ensure your not seeing him—perhaps, never more. The very opposite is what you must do, or you'll spoil all my plans. But I'll instruct you better ...
— The Free Lances - A Romance of the Mexican Valley • Mayne Reid

... not have been in such a hurry to whisk her things into the box," she complained. "To look at the red dress won't spoil it, I suppose. I will have another look at ...
— Apples, Ripe and Rosy, Sir • Mary Catherine Crowley

... perfect obedience to her very prudent directions. The ice was broken, and we allowed no ceremony to stand between us. I grew again very excited, and would fain have proceeded at once to try again to fuck her as well as suck her, but she was inexorable, and told me I should only spoil the pleasure we should afterwards have in bed. The day passed like an hour in her ...
— The Romance of Lust - A classic Victorian erotic novel • Anonymous

... with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn which it cannot stand, though it continues the saga of the Mississippi with sympathy and knowledge; but The Fugitive Blacksmith has a flavor which few comparisons and no neglect can spoil. Its protagonist, wrongly accused of a murder which he by mischance finds it difficult to explain, takes to his heels and lives by his mechanic wits among the villages of the lower Mississippi through a diversity of adventures which puts his story among the little ...
— Contemporary American Novelists (1900-1920) • Carl Van Doren

... hard boiled are very indigestible. Do not use an egg until it has been laid some hours, as the white does not become thick till then and cannot be beaten stiff. Eggs should be kept in a cool dark place, and handled carefully in order to avoid mixing the white and yolk, which causes the egg to spoil quickly. ...
— Public School Domestic Science • Mrs. J. Hoodless

... and undisturbed for many an evening in fair weather and foul. They had spent many a day in sunshine and storm, gathering the unclaimed spoil of sea and shore. They had kept these mute relations, varied only by the incidents of the hunt or meagre household duties, for three years, ever since the man, wandering moodily over the lonely sands, had fallen upon the half-starved woman lying ...
— Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands and Other Stories • Bret Harte

... situations, with 30 acres of land attached, "for the better encouragement and enabling of the said keepers to attend and watch over the said enclosures within their several walks, and to preserve the same, and the young springs of wood and trees thereon growing, and to grow from time to time, from spoil and harm." The names given to each of the six divisions were derived from some of the most eminent living characters of that day. Thus, the Speech House, or King's Walk, was so called after Charles II.; York Walk and Lodge after ...
— The Forest of Dean - An Historical and Descriptive Account • H. G. Nicholls

... Charlie, it is happiness. It must be when I remember how very happy he used to be, and there can be nothing to spoil it. When I see how all the duties of his station worry and perplex Philip, I am glad he was spared from it, and had all his freshness and brightness his whole life. It beams out on me more now, and it was such perfect happiness while ...
— The Heir of Redclyffe • Charlotte M. Yonge

... mean to spoil the lassie, if she's no spoiled already, petting and making a work with her as though she were really ill. Ill! It's little any of you ken what it ...
— Christie Redfern's Troubles • Margaret Robertson

... his death, Vincent de Paul gave to the Congregation of Mission Priests its Rule and Constitutions. It was the work of God, he explained to them; there was nothing of his own in it. If there had been, he confessed humbly, it would only make him fearful lest his touch might spoil the rest. Those who listened to him and who had been witnesses of his long and holy life, his wisdom ...
— Life of St. Vincent de Paul • F.A. [Frances Alice] Forbes

... ways: either by talking unguardedly, or by indulging in expenditures not warranted by his means and position. If several persons had been concerned in the crime, nothing was more likely than a disagreement over the spoil, and consequent treachery on the part of one of them. Or, again, some of the confederates might become alarmed, and attempt to save themselves by giving away their comrades. Mr. Taggett, however, leaned to the belief that the assassin ...
— The Stillwater Tragedy • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... idea was to drain the engine of its oil, knowing that sooner or later the pistons would run dry and stick. Such a proceeding would ruin the engine, and Harry was too good a mechanic to spoil a first rate engine, especially one built by his father. He would as soon think of hamstringing a faithful horse. A better plan soon came to him and put him into action. It soon had him flat on his back under the car, boring a hole ...
— The Perils of Pauline • Charles Goddard

... "that would spoil everything. Just slip a large spoon under all the silver, and lift it out at once. There is a saying that no water is hot enough to wash silver in unless it is too hot to put your hands in. Just see how fast the heat in it dries it as it lies on the tray! And see how it polishes, too, ...
— A Little Housekeeping Book for a Little Girl - Margaret's Saturday Mornings • Caroline French Benton

... Powers infringed none of the principles of international law, whereas the Treaty of London took away from the smaller Power nearly everything of value it possessed and stripped it of the possibility of future greatness; the spoil was presented by the Great Powers to one of themselves. We may concede, as Mr. C. A. H. Bartlett of the New York and United States Federal Bar points out in his closely reasoned monograph[89]—we may concede that belligerents can by ...
— The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 1 • Henry Baerlein

... trains," said William. "I don't like holdin' trains. I've never bin taught 'bout holdin' trains. I might do it wrong on the day an' spoil it all. I shan't like to spoil ...
— More William • Richmal Crompton

... time seems favorable; the risk is small, and the spoil will be great. Convene my ...
— The Buddha - A Drama in Five Acts and Four Interludes • Paul Carus

... put out because the iceman was late and her dinner supplies threatened to spoil and Sarah insisted on the hot-water heater being lit so that she might have hot water in which to wash her cat. The wrangle with Winnie over this continued throughout ...
— Rosemary • Josephine Lawrence

... To-morrow's battle must be hazardous indeed, but we have stood many a time and faced a fiercer peril, and ere the sun had sunk, once more have driven armies like desert sands before our gale of valour and counted the spoil of hostile kings. What have we to fear? Though allies be fled, still is our array as strong as Caesar's! And show we but as high a heart, why, I swear to you, upon my princely word, to-morrow night I shall deck yonder Canopic ...
— Cleopatra • H. Rider Haggard

... well-known law that a lady must first express some wish in such matters—these were indications of a coarse nature sure to be more than uncongenial to Miss Pratt. Its presence might make the whole occasion distasteful to her—might spoil her day. Both William and Joe Bullitt began to wonder why on earth Johnnie Watson didn't have any more sense than to invite such a big, fat lummox of a ...
— Seventeen - A Tale Of Youth And Summer Time And The Baxter Family Especially William • Booth Tarkington

... "Crying will only spoil your bright eyes, my little princess," said Trencoss, "and you will have to marry me whether ...
— Irish Fairy Tales • Edmund Leamy

... too late. Hulls might kill somebody, or voluntarily move out and spoil the trade. Also, I'll have to have added money—have to open an account to get funds with which to appease Hulls or to live on, while I am working at it. I have never been in Laramie and I nearly got killed in Cheyenne, so I'll open an ...
— David Lannarck, Midget - An Adventure Story • George S. Harney

... sleeps a great deal, and I absolutely long to talk to some one at times. I don't know anything much about fishing, but I hope you'll let me be with you some, if I promise not to talk too much and spoil things!" ...
— The Dragon's Secret • Augusta Huiell Seaman

... conversation, the course of which was as follows. While the rest wept without speaking Veturia began: "Why are you surprised, my child? Why are you startled? We are not deserters, but the country has sent to you, if you should yield, your mother and wife and children, if otherwise, your spoil; hence, if even now you still are angry, kill us first. Why do you weep? Why turn away? Can you fail to know how we have just ceased lamenting the affairs of state, in order that we might see you? ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol VI. • Cassius Dio

... tall and proud Attempt to spoil our peace, He sends his tempests roaring loud, And sinks them ...
— The Psalms of David - Imitated in the Language of The New Testament - And Applied to The Christian State and Worship • Isaac Watts

... Keel that had, as he, restored Its excited sovereign on its happy board, Now a cheap spoil and the mean victor's slave Taught the Dutch colours from its ...
— Andrew Marvell • Augustine Birrell

... this point by my narrative.[42] But I shall tell in the present case in what manner he destroyed the soldiers. The bread which soldiers are destined to eat in camp must of necessity be put twice into the oven, and be cooked so carefully as to last for a very long period and not spoil in a short time, and loaves cooked in this way necessarily weigh less; and for this reason, when such bread is distributed, the soldiers generally received as their portion one-fourth more than the usual weight.[43] John, therefore, ...
— History of the Wars, Books III and IV (of 8) - The Vandalic War • Procopius

... by. You are in charge of the home yourself, and the "discipline" relaxes a bit. Perhaps you even resort to washing your fruit in cold boiled water instead of scalding it, because scalding does spoil it so! Then the younger workers are sent to you, and you become the head of a new family. One day, suddenly, one of them gets a violently upset stomach. Is it cholera? The nearest hospital is two days' ...
— Have We No Rights? - A frank discussion of the "rights" of missionaries • Mabel Williamson

... father had been in the cavalry, and she consequently looked down on every other branch of the service.) "An uneducated man, very likely, who would be sea-sick, and spoil all the ...
— Columba • Prosper Merimee

... cried the old man, and he began to fumble for his snuff-box. He looked at Newman from head to foot; he looked at his daughter and then at the picture. "Take care you don't spoil it!" he cried ...
— The American • Henry James

... of them were on horseback, and actually had their steeds smeared with dun-coloured clay so as to resemble the background and the rocks. It was indeed exceedingly difficult to distinguish them. Those on foot ran in a zigzag fashion, holding their blankets in front, so as to spoil ...
— The Rising of the Red Man - A Romance of the Louis Riel Rebellion • John Mackie

... her tell Bertha Dorset that she had six months to put in while her husband was taking the cure in the Engadine. You should have seen Bertha look vacant! But it's no joke, you know—if she stays here all the autumn she'll spoil everything, and Maria Van Osburgh ...
— House of Mirth • Edith Wharton

... "Are you there? You remember that big bad man, the one who used heaps of power on 1200? Well, he's gone north—very far north. You'd want to follow him, Curlie, if you knew what I know. The radiophone is going to do great things for the north, Curlie. But men like him will spoil it all. Remember this, Curlie: If you do go, be careful. Careful. He's a bad man and the stakes are big!" The whisper ceased. The silence that followed it ...
— Curlie Carson Listens In • Roy J. Snell

... were full of fish. But, brothers, since these English have seized upon our country, they cut down the grass with scythes, and the trees with axes. Their cows and horses eat up the grass, and their hogs spoil our beds of clams; and finally we shall starve to death. Therefore, I beseech you to act like men. All the sachems both to the east and west have joined with us and we are ...
— Once Upon A Time In Connecticut • Caroline Clifford Newton

... wooden fort, and lastly, over the tops of the wagons, a ridge pole was fixed formed of a small tree which fell to Uncle Jack's axe, and across this three wagon cloths were stretched, forming a fairly waterproof roof to protect goods that would spoil, and also promising to be strong enough to check a spear which might reach it through the branches ...
— The Dingo Boys - The Squatters of Wallaby Range • G. Manville Fenn

... Grose with emphasis declared. "It was Quint's own fancy. To play with him, I mean—to spoil him." She paused a moment; then she added: "Quint was ...
— The Turn of the Screw • Henry James

... forward. From both sides missiles whizzed like beetles, buzzed like bees, sometimes they struck one another in the air with a crack, and every minute or two on this side or that some warrior went to the rear groaning, or fell dead immediately. But this did not spoil the humor of others: they fought with malicious delight, which gradually changed to ...
— The Pharaoh and the Priest - An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt • Boleslaw Prus

... can't you, that if Miss Eloise should become much interested in that fad it would spoil our pleasure in being together, while ...
— Jewel - A Chapter In Her Life • Clara Louise Burnham

... we have more eggs than we want to hatch, we allow people to eat them," said Billina. "Indeed, I am very glad the Oz folks like our eggs, for otherwise they would spoil." ...
— The Emerald City of Oz • L. Frank Baum

... year. It says six hundred and fifty pounds, but I don't weigh more than four hundred. I haven't been weighed for some time past. Between you and me, I don't weigh as much as that, but you mustn't mention it, for it would spoil my reputation and might hinder my ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn

... and crossing to BELINDA). You really are the biggest, darlingest baby who ever lived. (Kisses her.) Do say I shan't spoil your lovely times. ...
— Belinda • A. A. Milne

... I must do it a few times, or Joe will plague me and spoil my fun to-night," answered Jill, shaking her skirts and rubbing her blue hands, wet and cold ...
— Jack and Jill • Louisa May Alcott



Words linked to "Spoil" :   taint, adulterate, load, addle, desire, pillage, treat, disfigure, modify, destroy, short-circuit, cloud, damage, foreclose, miscarry, stretch, prevent, do by, pillaging, preclude, dilute, forestall, let down, deface, dash, want, curdle, debase, go wrong, decay, plural form, ruin, plundering, handle, blemish, plural, stolen property, disappoint, defile, sully, injury, forbid, fail



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