Word.ws English Dictionary

spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar

spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar is the present participle and gerund 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.

Questions about spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar

What is spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar the present participle and gerund of?
Spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar is the present participle and gerund of spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.

Words near spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar in the dictionary

  1. spoiling
  2. spoiling for a fight
  3. spoiling somebody rotten
  4. spoiling someone rotten
  5. spoiling the market
  6. spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar
  7. spoilings
  8. spoilless
  9. spoils
  10. spoils of war
  11. spoils somebody rotten

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spoiling the ship for a ha'p'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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spoiling_the_ship_for_a_ha%27p%27orth_of_tar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.