Word.ws English Dictionary

spanner in the works

spanner in the works noun: something that disrupts smooth operation or functioning.

Noun

spanner in the works (plural spanners in the works)

  1. (UK, idiomatic) Something that disrupts smooth operation or functioning.
    • 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.

Synonyms of spanner in the works

Forms of spanner in the works

pluralspanners in the works

Questions about spanner in the works

What does spanner in the works mean?
Spanner in the works means something that disrupts smooth operation or functioning.
What part of speech is spanner in the works?
Spanner in the works is a noun.
What is the plural of spanner in the works?
The plural of spanner in the works is spanners in the works.

Words near spanner in the works in the dictionary

  1. spanner
  2. spanner barb
  3. spanner barbs
  4. spanner crab
  5. spanner crabs
  6. spanner in the works
  7. spanner wrench
  8. spanner wrenches
  9. spannered
  10. spannering
  11. spannerless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spanner in the works (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “spanner in the works.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spanner_in_the_works. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.