spoil the market

English

Alternative forms

• spoil market

Verb

spoil the market (third-person singular simple present spoils the market, present participle spoiling the market, simple past and past participle spoiled the market)

1. (Singapore, informal, idiomatic) To set higher standards by overachieving, so others look inferior or unmotivated in comparison.
   • 2006 September 22, Lydia Lim, Keith Lin, Ken Kwek, quoting Alvin Tan, The Straits Times, quoted in Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English, Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings Limited:

     Instead of working with each other, they bicker and say things like, if you do that, you’ll spoil the market.

References

• Lee, Jack Tsen-Ta (2004) “spoil the market”, in A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English‎^[1]