词组 | a spanner in the works |
释义 | a spanner in the worksSomething 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 worksan 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. |
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