spanner

plural spanners

1. CommonwealthIrelandUKA hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts.

   Pass me that spanner, Jake; there's just one more bolt to screw in.

   1 more example

   Tools don’t have judgment or ethics, and they might fail to push back on bad ideas or dangerous requests. “Your spanner’s never like, ‘This shouldn’t be built,’” she said, using a British term for wrench.

   2025 December 19, Kashmir Hill, quoting Amanda Askell, “Why Do A.I. Chatbots Use ‘I’?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

   Synonyms: wrench

   1. CanadaCommonwealthIrelandUKUSAny 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.

      Synonyms: wrench

2. rareOne 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. graph theoryA (usually sparse) graph whose shortest path distances approximate those in a dense graph or other metric space.
4. engineeringA 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. obsoleteA device in early steam engines for moving the valves for the alternate admission and shutting off of the steam.
6. IrelandUKA problem, dilemma or obstacle; something unexpected or troublesome (in the phrase spanner in the works)

   Halfway through the production of Macbeth, the director found that the stage was smaller than he expected. This really threw a spanner in the works.

7. IrelandUKderogatorymildlyA stupid or unintelligent person; one prone to making mistakes, especially in language.

   You spanner, Rodney! I wanted some time, not a bunch of thyme!

present singular third person spanners · participle present spannering · participle past spannered · past spannered

1. To use a spanner; to fix with a spanner