Word.ws English Dictionary

spanners in the works

spanners in the works is the plural of spanner in the works.

Meaning of spanner in the works

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.

Questions about spanners in the works

What is spanners in the works the plural of?
Spanners in the works is the plural of spanner in the works.

Words near spanners in the works in the dictionary

  1. spanner wrenches
  2. spannered
  3. spannering
  4. spannerless
  5. spanners
  6. spanners in the works
  7. spannest
  8. spanning
  9. spanning tree
  10. spanning trees
  11. spannings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spanners in the works (page history and authors); 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: “spanners in the works.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spanners_in_the_works. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.