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What is the difference in meaning between spill coffee on the floor, spill coffee over the floor and spill coffee all over the floor?

Yesterday I spilled coffee on the floor.

Yesterday I spilled coffee over the floor.

Yesterday I spilled coffee all over the floor.

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    They're all perfectly idiomatic, and mean the same thing.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Sep 17, 2020 at 17:44
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    @FumbleFingersReinstateMonica Perhaps, although "all over" seems to suggest that a fairly wide area of the floor was affected, while in the case of "on", it might all be in one small area.
    – rjpond
    Commented Sep 19, 2020 at 20:22

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As @FumbleFingers says they all mean the same thing really, but they imply different amounts. All over usually means everywhere, so that has more of a sense of covering the floor - probably not literally in this case, but definitely making a mess!

On doesn't really imply any particular amount. It could be a little, it could be a lot, you just know that coffee was spilled.

Personally I don't hear over used in this way very much (on its own, as opposed to all over), but it has the same sense of being spread out a bit, instead of being in one place - just not as much as all over. Over can also mean "over the edge of something", which doesn't apply to the floor, but it might for "over the table" or "over the balcony".

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    "Personally I don't hear over used in this way" - agreed. We don't typically "spill coffee over" things. Occasionally, we "pour coffee over" something: to make an affogato, put a little scoop of ice cream in a cup, then pour a shot of espresso over the ice cream
    – Juhasz
    Commented Sep 17, 2020 at 20:12

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