See spanner in the works on Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "spanners in the works",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "spanners in the works"
},
"expansion": "spanner in the works (plural spanners in the works)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "British English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English terms with collocations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
8,
28
]
],
"text": "throw a spanner in the works",
"type": "example"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
6,
26
]
],
"text": "put a spanner in the works",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Something that disrupts smooth operation or functioning."
],
"id": "en-spanner_in_the_works-en-noun-QKPxu2F0",
"raw_glosses": [
"(chiefly UK) Something that disrupts smooth operation or functioning."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "monkey wrench in the works"
}
],
"tags": [
"UK"
]
}
],
"word": "spanner in the works"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "spanners in the works",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "spanners in the works"
},
"expansion": "spanner in the works (plural spanners in the works)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"British English",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with collocations",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
8,
28
]
],
"text": "throw a spanner in the works",
"type": "example"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
6,
26
]
],
"text": "put a spanner in the works",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Something that disrupts smooth operation or functioning."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(chiefly UK) Something that disrupts smooth operation or functioning."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "monkey wrench in the works"
}
],
"tags": [
"UK"
]
}
],
"word": "spanner in the works"
}
Download raw JSONL data for spanner in the works meaning in All languages combined (1.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-20 using wiktextract (3dadd05 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.