Word.ws English Dictionary

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

spoilt the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar is the simple past and past participle 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 spoilt the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar

What is spoilt the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar the simple past and past participle of?
Spoilt the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar is the simple past and past participle of spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.

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

  1. spoilsports
  2. spoilt
  3. spoilt for choice
  4. spoilt somebody rotten
  5. spoilt someone rotten
  6. spoilt the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar
  7. Spok
  8. Spokan
  9. Spokane
  10. Spokane County
  11. Spokane Valley

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spoilt 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.

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