Synonyms for spoil
- destroy
- devastate
- harm
- impair
- mar
- tarnish
- undo
- upset
- wreck
- blemish
- damage
- debase
- deface
- defile
- demolish
- desecrate
- desolate
- despoil
- disfigure
- disgrace
- injure
- pillage
- plunder
- prejudice
- ravage
- sack
- smash
- squash
- trash
- vitiate
- waste
- depredate
- make useless
- mess up
- muck up
- spoliate
- take apart
Antonyms for spoil
- aid
- assist
- build
- construct
- create
- fix
- help
- improve
- repair
- adorn
- beautify
- clean
- decorate
- embellish
- enhance
- honor
- mend
- ornament
- praise
- protect
- purify
- respect
- sanctify
- save
- be indifferent
- grow
- ignore
- neglect
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR SPOIL
The boat he supposed to belong to Robert, and he was determined to spoil it.
When we only spoil you by praising and quoting everything you say.
Tell me what it is, or I'll go and find out, and spoil the fun.
I disdain to spoil my eyes or waste my time by newspaper-reading.
Yet now she must spoil it all, and all for the Father's hardness.
The moral inculcated by it is, "Spare the rod and spoil the child."
But why rasp your nerves and spoil your digestion by so fuming over their politics?
A fishing vessel's no place for 'em; they'll spoil all our luck.
My dear Evelyn, you are born to spoil every one—from Sultan to Aubrey.
Do not let us spoil a great opportunity because of our sensitiveness as authors.
WORD ORIGIN
c.1300, from Old French espoillier "to strip, plunder," from Latin spoliare "to strip of clothing, rob," from spolium "armor stripped from an enemy, booty;" originally "skin stripped from a killed animal," from PIE *spol-yo-, perhaps from root *spel- "to split, to break off" (cf. Greek aspalon "skin, hide," spolas "flayed skin;" Lithuanian spaliai "shives of flax;" Old Church Slavonic rasplatiti "to cleave, split;" Middle Low German spalden, Old High German spaltan "to split;" Sanskrit sphatayati "splits").
Sense of "to damage so as to render useless" is from 1560s; that of "to over-indulge" (a child, etc.) is from 1640s (implied in spoiled). Intransitive sense of "to go bad" is from 1690s. To be spoiling for (a fight, etc.) is from 1865, from notion that one will "spoil" if he doesn't get it. Spoil-sport attested from 1801.