spoilt
part of speech
adjective (spoilt — US usually spoiled); verb form: past tense and past participle of «spoil» (spoil, spoils, spoilt/spoiled, spoiling)
meaning for a pupil
1) A spoilt child has been given everything they want, so they behave badly when they do not get their way. tree →
2) Spoilt food has gone bad and is not safe to eat. tree →
3) Spoilt means damaged or ruined: a spoilt picture, a spoilt day. tree →
4) A spoilt vote or ballot paper is filled in wrongly, so it is not counted (UK). tree →
5) «Spoilt for choice» means there are so many good choices that it is hard to pick one. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories a spoilt prince or child learns a lesson; in everyday life spoilt food must be thrown away (safety). In maths problems, spoilt items are taken away from the total. Phrases: a spoilt brat, spoilt rotten, spoilt for choice, spoilt milk.
examples
- The spoilt boy screamed when he didn't get the biggest present. tree →
- The milk was spoilt, so we poured it away. tree →
- The rain spoilt our picnic. tree →
- Gran spoils the grandchildren rotten. tree →
- At the sweet shop we were spoilt for choice. tree →
- Of 40 apples, 6 were spoilt, so 34 were good. tree →
- His drawing was spoilt by a big ink blot. tree →
- "But your bow is spoilt," said the old poet. tree →
note
«Spoilt» is the usual UK, Irish, Australian and NZ form; Americans usually say «spoiled». «Spoilt brat» is rude. In maths, spoilt things are usually subtracted: 40 − 6 = 34 good ones. Do not mix up with «spilt» (past of spill).
In the corpora
- «Spoilt only child» is a stereotype; many only children do plenty of chores.
- Having a lot is not the same as being spoilt; being kind and sharing is what matters.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «spoilt» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.