verb. (various).—In addition to the sense (now accepted) given by GROSE (‘to mar, to place obstacles in the way’) there are colloq. usages as follows:—TO SPOIL FOR = to be eager for: as ‘SPOILING for a fight,’ and SPOILING to be invited; TO SPOIL ONE’S SHAPE = to be got with child; TO SPOIL ONE’S MOUTH = to damage the face. Also in sarcastic combination, SPOIL-BREAD = a baker; SPOIL-BROTH = a cook; SPOIL-IRON = a smith (GROSE); SPOIL-PAPER = a scribbler; SPOIL-PUDDING = a long-winded preacher (GROSE); SPOIL-SPORT = an unfriendly or dispirited associate or intruder: hence TO SPOIL SPORT = (1) to dishearten, and (2) to prevent; SPOIL-TRADE = an unscrupulous competitor; SPOIL-TEMPER = an exacting superior.
1280. [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 427, All through the century [16th] new words formed like the SPILBRED of 1280 (not bread-spiller) were coming in.]
1597–8. HAUGHTON, A Woman will have her Will, vi. 2 [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, x. 537]. The rogue is waiting yet to SPOIL YOUR SPORT.
1611. DAVIES, The Scourge of Folly [Works, Ed. GROSART], i. 81.
| My Satyre shall not touch such sacred things … | |
| As some SPOILE-PAPERS have deerly done of late. |
1678. COTTON, Scarronides, or Virgil Travestie [Works (1725), 74].
| That I am half afraid lest he | |
| Should chance to SPOIL her Majesty. |
1694. MOTTEUX, Rabelais, IV. xlvii. He spied his wife lying on the ground piteously weeping and howling…. ‘He has SPOILED me. I am undone.’
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Works, ii. 97. The French king who had SPOIL’D THE SHAPE … of several mistresses … had a mind to do the same by me.
1821. SCOTT, Kenilworth, xxviii. Mike Lambourne was never a make-bate, or a SPOIL-SPORT, or the like.
1821. P. EGAN, Life in London, II. iv. ‘Burst you,… if you don’t hold that are red rag of yours, I’ll SPOIL YOUR MOUTH for a munth.’
1864. Derby Day, 52. It will SPOIL SPORT to call in the bobbies.
1901. Daily Telegraph, 6 Nov., ‘Racing in the Fog.’ Fog as a SPOIL-SPORT is less recurrent than snow and wind.
