a spanner in the works

Something that disrupts, foils, or causes problems to a plan, activity, or project. Primarily heard in UK. We had everything in line for the party, but having the caterer cancel on us at the last minute really threw a spanner in the works! It'll really put a spanner in the works if the board decides not to increase our funding for this project.

a spanner in the works

an event, person, or thing that prevents the smooth or successful implementation of a plan; a drawback or impediment.

A variant, found chiefly in North American English, is a monkey wrench in the works , a monkey wrench being a spanner or wrench with adjustable jaws: to throw a spanner (or a monkey wrench ) into the works is to deliberately wreck someone's plans or activities. In his 1974 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, Edward Abbey used this as a metaphor for systematic industrial sabotage, and monkey-wrenching is now a colloquial term for such activity.

1997 Spectator Pretty well all the newspapers…are now adversarial in tone, conceiving their basic purpose as throwing spanners in the works almost as a matter of principle.

词组	a spanner in the works
释义	a spanner in the works a spanner in the works Something that disrupts, foils, or causes problems to a plan, activity, or project. Primarily heard in UK. We had everything in line for the party, but having the caterer cancel on us at the last minute really threw a spanner in the works! It'll really put a spanner in the works if the board decides not to increase our funding for this project. See also: spanner, work Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. a spanner in the works an event, person, or thing that prevents the smooth or successful implementation of a plan; a drawback or impediment. A variant, found chiefly in North American English, is a monkey wrench in the works , a monkey wrench being a spanner or wrench with adjustable jaws: to throw a spanner (or a monkey wrench ) into the works is to deliberately wreck someone's plans or activities. In his 1974 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, Edward Abbey used this as a metaphor for systematic industrial sabotage, and monkey-wrenching is now a colloquial term for such activity. 1997 Spectator Pretty well all the newspapers…are now adversarial in tone, conceiving their basic purpose as throwing spanners in the works almost as a matter of principle. See also: spanner, work Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary See also: chip chips up on (one's) ear Two Bob (as) dead as mutton dead as mutton mutton one of the boys one of the lads be one of the boys
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