spilth

English

Etymology

From spill +‎ -th. Compare Old English *spilþ, spild (“annihilation, destruction, ruin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɪlθ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪlθ

Noun

spilth (countable and uncountable, plural spilths)

1. (archaic) Spillage; spilled material.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Instans Tyrannus”, in Men and Women, lines 19–22:

     I tempted his blood and his flesh, / Hid in roses my mesh, / Choicest cates and the flagon's best spilth— / Still he kept to his filth!

   • 1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, →OCLC:

     Like a vast spider suspended by a metal chord, a candelabrum presided over the room nine feet above the floor-boards. From its sweeping arms of iron, long stalactites of wax lowered their pale spilths drip by drip, drip by drip.

   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:

     Baked fish lay cooling on the table, and there was a great spilth of wine on the floor.