Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use spanner in a sentence

12 example sentences · noun, verb

Spanner means a hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts. Example: “Pass me that spanner, Jake; there's just one more bolt to screw in.”

Examples of spanner by meaning

nounA hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts.

  • Pass me that spanner, Jake; there's just one more bolt to screw in.
  • “Your spanner’s never like, ‘This shouldn’t be built,’” she said, using a British term for wrench.2025 December 19, Kashmir Hill, quoting Amanda Askell, “Why Do A.I. Chatbots Use ‘I’?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York...

nounAny of certain types of such a tool that have a pin or hook to engage the driven object.

  • The groove in this toolholder is what the spanner grabs onto when you are changing the tool.

nounA problem, dilemma or obstacle; something unexpected or troublesome (in the phrase spanner in the works).

  • Halfway through the production of Macbeth, the director found that the stage was smaller than he expected. This really threw a spanner in the works.

More sentences with spanner

  • Halfway through the production of Macbeth, the director found that the stage was smaller than he had expected. This really threw a spanner in the works.From the entry throw a spanner in the works
  • The kids' involvement was unfortunately more of a spanner in the works than a helpful contribution toward Daddy's progress on the task, but he gamely pretended to be thankful anyway.From the entry spanner in the works
  • Jack discarded a length of wood, two twists of wire, his two-up kip and a spanner.2010, Colin McLaren, Sunflower: A Tale of Love, War and Intrigue, page 101. From the entry kip
  • More wrinkles than a tortoise, face like a bag of spanners.2009, Ron Clooney, A Measure of Wheat for a Penny, page 275. From the entry face like a bag of spanners
  • For a superconnected probe interval graph G, a tree 4-spanner can be constructed easily.2003, H. L. Bodlaender, Graph-theoretic concepts in computer science: 29th International Workshop. From the entry superconnected
  • The best thing about Hayling Island (apart from its spanners) was its bounteous bushfuls of blackberries, from which I readily grazed.2011, Josie Dew, Slow Coast Home. From the entry bushful
  • “Mother,” said Tony, “you know that spanner that got into the water-butt the day I had my bandaged ankle?1934, Angela Thirkell, The Demon in the House, Part 3, Chapter 5. From the entry grabble
  • At the top center of the pommel was a tang button , flush to the top , and with two holes to accommodate a spanner wrench .1995, John R. Angolia, In the Service of the Reich: Diplomatic & Government Officials, German Red Cross, R James Bender Pub. From the entry tang button

Meaning of spanner

  1. noun A hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts.
  2. noun Any of certain types of such a tool that have a pin or hook to engage the driven object.
  3. noun One who, or that which, spans.

Full definition of spanner

Questions about spanner in a sentence

How do you use spanner in a sentence?
Spanner is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Pass me that spanner, Jake; there's just one more bolt to screw in.”
What is a short sentence with spanner?
“More wrinkles than a tortoise, face like a bag of spanners.”
What does spanner mean?
Spanner means a hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spanner (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use spanner in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/spanner. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.