spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar
spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar verb: to have something important fail for want of a small amount of money or effort.
Verb
spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar (third-person singular simple present spoils the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar, present participle spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar, simple past and past participle spoiled the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar or spoilt the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar)
Forms of spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar
| third-person singular present | spoils the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar |
|---|---|
| present participle | spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar |
| past participle | spoiled the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar |
| past | spoiled the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar |
| past participle | spoilt the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar |
| past | spoilt the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar |
Questions about spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar
- What does spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar mean?
- Spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar means to have something important fail for want of a small amount of money or effort.
- What part of speech is spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar?
- Spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar is a verb.
- What is the past tense of spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar?
- The past tense of spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar is spoiled the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.
Words near spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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