I asked some people this question and I have got different answers. Some said to spill can only be used witlh liquids as in "when she knocked into me, I spilled my tea all over the floor", but some said it is acceptable to use it with small fragments and sticky substances as in "I forgot the banana in my bag and it spilled in it" and "do not spill the crumbs of the bread or bugs will be lured into your bed at night". The first group suggested using dropping rather than spilling for small fragments.
Do you think to spill can be used for sticky substances as in the banana example and small fragments such as bread crumbs, or is it always exclusively used for liquids?
Best Answer
The main requirement for spilling something is not that it be liquid, but that it first be in a container of some kind. A banana yogurt can spill in your backpack because it's in a container; a banana can't — the peel doesn't count as a container. If you eat crackers in bed, you drop crumbs or get crumbs all over the place, but you don't spill them unless you've first caught them, say, in a saucer.
A truck is also a container from which virtually anything can spill out because of a traffic accident: 40,000 pounds of avocados, thousands of eels, or a thousand books.