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Put a spanner in the works

Posted by Billy Jo on July 08, 2000

In Reply to: Put a spanner in the works posted by Scott Marsden on July 07, 2000

: The origin listed for the phrase "put a spanner in the works" is interesting, but it's not really an origin. After all, the title of Lennon's book wouldn't be much of a play on words if the phrase "a spanner in the works" didn't already exist.

: For those who don't know, "spanner" is the British term for "wrench". To "put a spanner in the works" is the equivalent of tossing a wrench into the gears of a machine -- like the description says, a deliberate way to foul things up. Whethere it originates from some specific source, I don't know!

Early days of steam and water power duruing the industrial revolution in England when men were losing their jobs and took action to damage the cause of that loss. Spanner eh' I thnk I like it better than wrench.

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