derramar

To spill a liquid (derramar el café) and, figuratively, to shed tears or blood (derramar lágrimas, derramar sangre). The figurative sense is very common in emotional or dramatic writing and speech, on par with the literal one.

• Se me derramó el café en la mesa. — I spilled the coffee on the table.
• Lloró y derramó muchas lágrimas. — She cried and shed many tears.
• La guerra hizo derramar mucha sangre. — The war caused a lot of bloodshed.

Using derramar only for accidental physical spills and missing its very common figurative use for tears and blood — a phrase like derramar lágrimas is a set expression, not a stretch of the literal meaning.

• expression "Derramar lágrimas" — A standard fixed expression meaning to cry intensely and sincerely, used throughout Spanish-language literature, speech, and song to describe deeply felt weeping.