Word.ws English Dictionary

spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar

spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar is the alternative form of spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.

Meaning of spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar

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)

  1. To have something important fail for want of a small amount of money or effort.

Forms of spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar

third-person singular presentspoils the ship for a hap'orth of tar
present participlespoiling the ship for a hap'orth of tar
past participlespoiled the ship for a hap'orth of tar
pastspoiled the ship for a hap'orth of tar
past participlespoilt the ship for a hap'orth of tar
pastspoilt the ship for a hap'orth of tar

Questions about spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar

What is spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar the alternative form of?
Spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar is the alternative form of spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.

Words near spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar in the dictionary

  1. spoil market
  2. spoil somebody rotten
  3. spoil someone rotten
  4. spoil the market
  5. spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar
  6. spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar
  7. spoil'd
  8. spoil-paper
  9. spoil-papers
  10. spoil-sport
  11. spoil-sports

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar (page history and authors); 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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Cite this entry: “spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spoil_the_ship_for_a_hap%27orth_of_tar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.