spanners

Noun

spanner (plural spanners)

1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK) A hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts.
   • Pass me that spanner, Jake; there's just one more bolt to screw in.

   Synonyms:

   wrench

   1. (Canada, Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, US) Any 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.
2. (rare) One who, or that which, spans.
   • The scheme of the spanner of continents and the desire of the little husbandman hoarding for his loved ones...1915, Florence Kiper Frank, The Jew to Jesus: and other poems
3. A (usually sparse) graph whose shortest path distances approximate those in a dense graph or other metric space.
4. A hand tool shaped like a small crank handle, for winding the spring of a wheel lock on a musket.
   • The spanner for spanning or winding up the spring of the wheel lock.1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, Fig. 10., page xvi
5. (obsolete) A device in early steam engines for moving the valves for the alternate admission and shutting off of the steam.

See all 9 meanings of spanner