Word Finder - spoils

definition

To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of their arms or armour.

definition

To strip or deprive (someone) of their possessions; to rob, despoil.

definition

To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.).

definition

To carry off (goods) by force; to steal.

definition

To ruin; to damage (something) in some way making it unfit for use.

definition

To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess.

definition

Of food, to become bad, sour or rancid; to decay.

example

Make sure you put the milk back in the fridge, otherwise it will spoil.

definition

To render (a ballot paper) invalid by deliberately defacing it.

definition

To reveal the ending or major events of (a story etc.); to ruin (a surprise) by exposing it ahead of time.

definition

That which is taken from another by violence; especially, the plunder taken from an enemy; pillage; booty.

definition

Public offices and their benefits regarded as the peculiar property of a successful party or faction, to be bestowed for its own advantage.

example

To the victor belong the spoils.

The auction continued in full swing, the outdoor area crowded with bargain seekers, their acquired spoils piled high about them.

The spoils of its tombs excavated in 1896 are in the British Museum.

Even so, Prussia was bereft of half of her territories; those west of the river Elbe went to swell the domains of Napoleon's vassals or to form the new kingdom of Westphalia for Jerome Bonaparte; while the spoils which the House of Hohenzollern had won from Poland in the second and third partitions were now to form the duchy of Warsaw, ruled over by Napoleon's ally, the elector (now king) of Saxony.

The House of Habsburg now ceded Salzburg and the Inn-Viertel to Napoleon (for his ally, the king of Bavaria); a great portion of the spoils which Austria had torn from Poland in 1795 went to the grand duchy of Warsaw, or Russia; and the cession of her provinces Carinthia, Carniola and Istria to the French empire cut her off from all access to the sea.

He would also ferry them back when the auction was finished, hauling home the spoils of the sale.

The earliest of the great works of Pheidias were dedications in memory of Marathon, from the spoils of the victory.

The value of oak bark depends upon the amount of tannin contained in it, which varies much, depending not only on the growth of the tree but on the care bestowed on the preparation of the bark itself, as it soon ferments and spoils by exposure to wet, while too much sun-heat is injurious.

In the past, war could increase your financial position, both as a nation (through spoils) and a soldier (through plunder).

His back was aching by the time he hauled the last chest to the patio behind the inn where the raiders could divvy the spoils.

She was the victor of Vegas to the tune of three hundred dollars, and called to invite Fred out to spend the spoils.

Fred would be up till the moon was down, out spending Mrs. Worthington's Vegas spoils.

The Venetians, who contracted for the transport of the crusaders, and whose blind doge Dandolo was first to land in Constantinople, received one-half and onefourth of the divided Greek empire for their spoils.

He was a leading member of the "Albany regency," a group of politicians who for more than a generation controlled the politics of New York and powerfully influenced those of the nation, and which did more than any other agency to make the "spoils system" a recognized procedure in national, state and local affairs.

Having thus secured his eastern frontier, Heraclius returned to Constantinople with ample spoils, including the true cross, which in 629 he brought back in person to Jerusalem.

A war broke out between the Calydonians and Curetes (led by Althaea's brothers) about the disposal of the head and skin, which Meleager awarded as a prize to Atalanta, who had inflicted the first wound; the brothers of Althaea lay in wait for Atalanta and robbed her of the spoils, but were slain by Meleager.

Monolithic columns of grey oriental granite (except one, which is of cipollino), evidently the spoils of older buildings, on each side support eight pointed arches much stilted.

Some 235,000 posts have now been placed under civil service rules and withdrawn from the category of spoils.

So the practice of securing places for persons who have served the party, in however humble a capacity, has sprung from the maxim that in the strife of politics the spoils belong to the victors, and has furnished a motive of incomparable and ever-present activity ever since the administration (1829-1837) of President Andrew Jackson.

By order of the privy council the lead was stripped off the roofs in 1567 and sold to Holland to pay the troops; but the ship conveying the spoils foundered in the North Sea.

The introduction of a third fur in the same garment or indiscriminate selection of colours of silk linings, braids, buttons, &c., often spoils an otherwise good article.

He died soon after, probably of fever, and his body was buried under the river-bed of the Busento, the stream being temporarily turned aside from its course while the grave was dug wherein the Gothic chief and some of his most precious spoils were interred.

The tax probably originated in a tribute levied by a conqueror or ruler upon his subjects, and perhaps the custom of dedicating a tenth of the spoils of war to the gods led to the religious extension of the term, the original offerings to deity being "firstfruits."

Her own share of the spoils was the acquisition, by the first treaty of partition (August 5, 1772), of Galicia f and Lodomeria.

An appeal to Austria met with little success, for the offences of the Uskoks were outweighed by their services against the Turks; while, if Minucci may be trusted, a share of their spoils, in silk, velvet and jewels, went to the ladies of the Archducal Court of Graz, where the matter was negotiated.

He won the admiration of Albert Gallatin and others by his powerful support of the movement in 1811 to recharter the Bank of the United States; he earned the condemnation of posterity by his authorship in 1820 of the four-years-term law, which limited the term of service of thousands of public officials to four years, and did much to develop the " spoils system."

The lower classes, bullied by sabbatarianism and deprived of the old revels, were restive and hostile; but the educated middle class was with the preachers; so were many lesser country gentry; and the nobles, securing the spoils of the church, were acquiescent.

On it once stood the gold tripod dedicated to Apollo as a tenth of the spoils.

It is often said that Jefferson established the "spoils system" by his changes in the civil service.

The spoils of the victors were immense, especially in horses, but the king himself had disappeared.

He was the chief instigator of the murder of his brother Clodomer's children in 524, and his share of the spoils consisted of the cities of Tours and Poitiers.

Among the dedications, the most interesting historically are a set of weapons dedicated by King Pyrrhus from the spoils of the Romans, including characteristic specimens of the pilum.

It was a marked characteristic of the Renaissance in France to appropriate the spoils of Greece and Rome for the profit of the mother tongue.

While in opposition his mind was swayed to and fro with conflicting emotions of dislike to the head of the ministry and of desire to share in the spoils of office.

He attacked the "spoils system" inaugurated by President Jackson, opposed the removal of the government deposits from the Bank of the United States, and in general was a severe critic of Jackson's administration.

Twice he was called from the plough to the dictatorship of Rome in 458 and 439 In 458 he defeated the Aequians in a single day, and after entering Rome in triumph with large spoils returned to his farm.

From the beginning of his career he was in favour of internal improvements as a means of opening up the fertile but inaccessible West, and was opposed to the abuse of official patronage known as "the spoils system."

Lastly, I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate civil ends; for I have taken all knowledge to be my province; and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof the one with frivolous disputations, confutations and verbosities, the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures, hath committed so many spoils, I hope I should bring in industrious observations, grounded conclusions and profitable inventions and discoveries - the best state of that province.

True, war with Sparta followed immediately, over the division of the spoils, and the campaigns of the Spartan generals in Asia Minor (399395) were all the more dangerous as they gave occasion to numerous rebellions.

The sacred vessels of the Jewish temple, brought to Rome by Titus, are said to have been among the spoils carried to Carthage by the conqueror.

But the growth of expenditure - chiefly of an unremunerative kind, such as the cost of war and missions - soon rendered these resources inadequate; and after 1515 the empire became ever more dependent on the spoils of hostile states and on subsidies from the royal treasury in Lisbon.

All parties believed that the ministry would fall, and the rotativos prepared once more to divide the spoils of office, when, on the 2nd of May 1907, Joao Franco reconstructed his cabinet, secured the dissolution of the cortes and announced that certain bills still under discussion would receive the force of law.

He was accused by the tribunes of having concealed a portion of the Syrian spoils in his own house; his legate gave evidence against him, and he withdrew his candidature.

His crowning sin (recorded by the poet alone) was the destruction of the Sibylline books - a sin worthy of one who had decked his wife in the spoils of Victory, the goddess who had for centuries presided over the deliberations of the senate.

Almost the entire ancient nobility of Bohemia was driven into exile, and adventurers from all countries, mostly men who had served in the imperial army, shared the spoils.

With the proceeds of the spoils of the war Dentatus cut an artificial channel to carry off the waters of Lake Velinus, so as to drain the valley of Reate.

He became, however, an early sacrifice to Jackson's spoils system, being recalled within less than a year, but not until he had involved himself in some awkward diplomatic complications with Bolivar's autocratic government.

The Scala were expelled from Verona, but Carrara and Visconti quarrelled over the division of the spoils.

Calvagh, acting apparently on the advice of his father, who was his prisoner and who remembered the successful night attack on Conn O'Neill at Knockavoe in 1522, surprised the O'Neills in their camp at night and routed them with the loss of all their spoils.

He devastated the country and returned to Tyrconnel with rich spoils; in the following year he shared in Tyrone's victory over the English at the Yellow Ford on the Blackwater; and in 1599 he defeated an attempt by the English under Sir Conyers Clifford, governor of Connaught, to succour O'Conor Sligo in Collooney castle, which O'Donnell captured, forcing Sligo to submission.

It is the atmosphere of Venus that spoils the observation.