spanner

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See also: Spanner and spänner

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
A set of metric spanners or wrenches, open at one end, box/ring at the other. These are commonly known as “combination” spanners.

Etymology

From span +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

Noun

spanner (plural spanners)

  2. (Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) A hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts.
    Synonym: wrench (US, Canada)
    Hypernyms: hand tool < tool
    Pass me that spanner, Jake; there's just one more bolt to screw in.
    2. (Canada, US) Any of certain types of such a tool that have a pin or hook to engage the driven object.
      Hypernyms: wrench (US, Canada) < hand tool < tool
      The groove in this toolholder is what the spanner grabs onto when you are changing the tool.
  3. (rare) One who, or that which, spans.
    • 1915, Florence Kiper Frank, The Jew to Jesus: and other poems:
      The scheme of the spanner of continents and the desire of the little husbandman hoarding for his loved ones...
  4. (graph theory) A (usually sparse) graph whose shortest path distances approximate those in a dense graph or other metric space.
  5. (weaponry) A hand tool shaped like a small crank handle, for winding the spring of a wheel lock on a musket.
    • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, Fig. 10., page xvi:
      The spanner for spanning or winding up the spring of the wheel lock.
  6. (obsolete) A device in early steam engines for moving the valves for the alternate admission and shutting off of the steam.
  7. (UK, Ireland) A 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.
  8. (UK, Ireland, mildly derogatory) A stupid or unintelligent person; one prone to making mistakes, especially in language.
    You spanner, Rodney! I wanted some time, not a bunch of thyme!

Synonyms

  • (hand tool for nuts and bolts): wrench (US)

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Japanese: スパナ (supana)
  • Korean: 스패너 (seupaeneo)
  • Malay: sepana

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

spanner (third-person singular simple present spanners, present participle spannering, simple past and past participle spannered)

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

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