SPOILER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does spoiler mean? 

• SPOILER (noun)
  The noun SPOILER has 5 senses:

1. a candidate with no chance of winning but who may draw enough votes to prevent one of the leading candidates from winning

2. someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war)

3. someone who pampers or spoils by excessive indulgence

4. an airfoil mounted on the rear of a car to reduce lift at high speeds

5. a hinged airfoil on the upper surface of an aircraft wing that is raised to reduce lift and increase drag

  Familiarity information: SPOILER used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPOILER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A candidate with no chance of winning but who may draw enough votes to prevent one of the leading candidates from winning

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("spoiler" is a kind of...):

campaigner; candidate; nominee (a politician who is running for public office)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

despoiler; freebooter; looter; pillager; plunderer; raider; spoiler

Hypernyms ("spoiler" is a kind of...):

stealer; thief (a criminal who takes property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it or selling it)

Domain category:

war; warfare (the waging of armed conflict against an enemy)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "spoiler"):

buccaneer; pirate; sea robber; sea rover (someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Someone who pampers or spoils by excessive indulgence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

coddler; mollycoddler; pamperer; spoiler

Hypernyms ("spoiler" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Derivation:

spoil (treat with excessive indulgence)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An airfoil mounted on the rear of a car to reduce lift at high speeds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("spoiler" is a kind of...):

aerofoil; airfoil; control surface; surface (a device that provides reactive force when in motion relative to the surrounding air; can lift or control a plane in flight)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A hinged airfoil on the upper surface of an aircraft wing that is raised to reduce lift and increase drag

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("spoiler" is a kind of...):

aerofoil; airfoil; control surface; surface (a device that provides reactive force when in motion relative to the surrounding air; can lift or control a plane in flight)

 Context examples 

My mother was dead, but we had still duties which we ought to perform; we must continue our course with the rest and learn to think ourselves fortunate whilst one remains whom the spoiler has not seized.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

On all the French marches are droves of outcasts, reivers, spoilers, and draw-latches, of whom I judge that these are some, though I marvel that they should dare to come so nigh to the castle of the seneschal.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)