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that prevents a plan or activity from succeeding We were hoping to get the project started in June but the funding was withdrawn so that rather threw a spanner in the works.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.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
RÉKa	RAY-kaw	Hungarian
Erika	e-REE-kah (Swedish, Norwegian), E-ree-kah (Finnish, German), ER-i-kə (English)	Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Czech, Slovene, Croatian, English, Italian
Philokrates	-	Ancient Greek
Kuzma	kooz-MAH	Russian
Cornelia	[kɔ:'ni:ljə]
OisÍN	OSH-een, USH-een	Irish, Irish Mythology