- Home
- Idioms
- put a spanner in the works
put a spanner in the works
put/throw a spanner in the works
(British & Australian) also put/throw a (monkey) wrench in the works (American) to do something that prevents a plan or activity from succeeding We were hoping to get the project started in June but the funding was withdrawn so that rather threw a spanner in the works. The sudden withdrawal of the guest speaker really threw a monkey wrench in the works.