Jump to content

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

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]

Verb

[edit]

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.