SPOILING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does spoiling mean? 

• SPOILING (noun)
  The noun SPOILING has 2 senses:

1. the process of becoming spoiled

2. the act of spoiling something by causing damage to it

  Familiarity information: SPOILING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPOILING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The process of becoming spoiled

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

spoilage; spoiling

Hypernyms ("spoiling" is a kind of...):

decay (the process of gradually becoming inferior)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "spoiling"):

mildew; mold; mould (the process of becoming mildewed)

souring (the process of becoming sour)

Derivation:

spoil (become unfit for consumption or use)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of spoiling something by causing damage to it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

spoil; spoilage; spoiling

Context example:

her spoiling my dress was deliberate

Hypernyms ("spoiling" is a kind of...):

injury (an act that causes someone or something to receive physical damage)

Derivation:

spoil (make a mess of, destroy or ruin)

 Context examples 

At the spoiling of Carcasonne I have seen chambers stored with writing, though not one man in our Company could read them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At first they melted as soon as they came in contact with the earth, but ever more fell, covering the ground, putting out the fire, spoiling his supply of moss-fuel.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

"I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them, as I used to spoil my copybooks, and I make so many beginnings there never will be an end," he said dolefully.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

As you hope ever to be forgiven, Mr. Rivers, the high crime and misdemeanour of spoiling a sanded kitchen, tell me what I wish to know.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The crowd began to grow unruly, and some of the men were protesting against the spoiling of the sport; but they were silenced when the newcomer lifted his head from his work for a moment and glared at them.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Another time, walking to the top of a fresh mole-hill, I fell to my neck in the hole, through which that animal had cast up the earth, and coined some lie, not worth remembering, to excuse myself for spoiling my clothes.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It is not merely, my pet, said I, that we lose money and comfort, and even temper sometimes, by not learning to be more careful; but that we incur the serious responsibility of spoiling everyone who comes into our service, or has any dealings with us.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He rose from his seat, and walked to the window, apparently from not knowing what to do; took up a pair of scissors that lay there, and while spoiling both them and their sheath by cutting the latter to pieces as he spoke, said, in a hurried voice, Perhaps you do not know—you may not have heard that my brother is lately married to—to the youngest—to Miss Lucy Steele.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

But mothers, sisters, and friends may help to make the crop a small one, and keep many tares from spoiling the harvest, by believing, and showing that they believe, in the possibility of loyalty to the virtues which make men manliest in good women's eyes.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But you are spoiling them for me, said I, as he stirred it quickly with a piece of burning wood, striking out of it a train of red-hot sparks that went careering up the little chimney, and roaring out into the air.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)