spoiling 1 of 3

adjective

as in spoiled

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

spoiling

2 of 3

noun

as in rotting

Related Words

Dissimilar Words

spoiling

3 of 3

verb

present participle of spoil
1
as in marring
to affect slightly with something morally bad or undesirable too much coddling will spoil the child

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in decomposing
to go through decomposition the meat has spoiled

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in damaging
to reduce the soundness, effectiveness, or perfection of know when to stop, for an unnecessary brushstroke can spoil a painted portrait

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
4
as in indulging
to treat with great or excessive care when they were newlyweds, the wife tended to spoil her husband, but she soon got over that

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of spoiling
Noun
Food and drink Wilderness is known for serving polished but healthy modern bush fare that’s tasty and spoiling, but not overly rich. — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Apr. 2026
Verb
The loss was Boston’s eighth in 12 games, spoiling Chad Tracy’s first game as manager after the club named him its 49th in team history. — ABC News, 22 Sep. 2026 That’s 10 games against teams that don’t have much to play for, aside from spoiling Toronto’s season. — Mitch Bannon, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2026 Read on to learn about how long chicken broth lasts in the pantry and the fridge, signs of spoiling, how to freeze it, and how to make it. — Jessica Farthing, Southern Living, 13 Sep. 2026 Related Stories Without spoiling the often jaw-dropping twists, Giuliano, who both wrote and directed the feature, has made a must-see film for genre fans. — William Earl, Variety, 10 Sep. 2026 For those who love spoiling their beloved pets, here are some of the top credit cards to consider. — Ryley Amond, CNBC, 10 Sep. 2026 Swanberg is focussed on his theoretical vision of modern romance—and forgive me for not spoiling it, but the ironies are whiplash-keen and psychologically audacious. — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2026 To say more about director George Roy Hill’s remarkably gratifying thriller would risk spoiling it. — Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Sep. 2026 CyberLeek is also threatening to post in-game footage spoiling the game’s story. — Michael Kan, PC Magazine, 24 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spoiling
  1. spoiled
  2. decay
  3. marring
  4. decomposing
  5. damaging
  6. indulging
  7. rotten
  8. disintegration
Adjective
  • Towards the end of the episode, Abby (Hall) and Andrew Borden (Hunnam) get very sick after eating spoiled oysters — projectile vomiting and soiling their undergarments in the dining room.
    — Marina Watts, Entertainment Weekly, 19 Sep. 2026
  • Unfortunately, food that causes food poisoning doesn’t always smell bad or look spoiled.
    — Sarah Jividen, Verywell Health, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of spoiled
Noun
  • Unlike fragile physical qubits, which suffer rapid calculation decay from environmental noise, logical qubits group multiple physical qubits together using software protocols to ensure computational stability and accuracy.
    — Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 25 Sep. 2026
  • To capitalize on this elevated volatility while maintaining a bullish long-term stance, traders can structure a unique strategy that collects time decay to finance a directional bet.
    — Michael Khouw, CNBC, 25 Sep. 2026
Definition of decay
Verb
  • The latter track takes overt inspiration from Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette, as Jepsen beckons her love to engage in life’s vices with her, like marring bedsheets with fruit stains and dashing nude through the garden.
    — Jaeden Pinder, Rolling Stone, 14 Sep. 2026
  • There has been no evidence of widespread fraud marring American elections.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of marring
Verb
  • Even poor Maggie the cat — the only living animal in Digger’s house and possibly one of the last living animals in the world — is decomposing in his arms, his sister (Sandra Hüller) says with a shudder.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2026
  • Her decomposing body was found in a plastic bin more than a year after death.
    — Ginny Monk, Hartford Courant, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of decomposing
Verb
  • David Hearn, the former Olympics canoeist accused of damaging Washington's Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool before prosecutors dropped the case, cannot be recharged, a judge has ruled.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Meanwhile, on the charging case, iFixit struggled to access its components without damaging the external plastic.
    — Jibin Joseph, PC Magazine, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of damaging
Verb
  • After the event was disrupted by an armed intruder, the Administration and the association scheduled a July do-over, where Trump delivered a rambling speech indulging seemingly every tangent that sprang to mind, but his contempt remained apparent.
    — Jelani Cobb, New Yorker, 27 Sep. 2026
  • And of course there’s a bookstore in town for indulging your inner Rory.
    — Beth Luberecki, USA Today, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of indulging
Adjective
  • But the thing that always stayed the same was that there was something a little rotten in her.
    — CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 25 Sep. 2026
  • Previous Evil pics have been rotten on Rotten Tomatoes with critics.
    — Anthony D'Alessandro, Deadline, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of rotten
Noun
  • Conversely, modern concrete is subject to irreversible decay, a form of disintegration owing to its formation as a composite of cement and aggregate materials, such as gravel and sand.
    — Jeffrey Weiss, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Standard modeling of droplet disintegration focused primarily on surface interactions between the liquid’s exterior and its surrounding environment.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 29 Sep. 2026
Definition of disintegration

Browse Nearby Words

spoil (for)
spoiling
spoiling (for)
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Spoiling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spoiling. Accessed 3 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of tittle

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 2

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All