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# spanner

«spanner» in Mova's school dictionary: **a metal tool for turning nuts and bolts to make them…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a spanner, spanners)

### meaning for a pupil

A spanner is a metal tool for turning nuts and bolts to make them tight or loose. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spanner/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

Used in everyday life and design and technology lessons: tools for fixing bikes, cars and furniture. Idiom (UK): "throw a spanner in the works" means spoil a plan.

### examples

- Dad used a spanner to fix my bike. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spanner/#x1)
- Pass me the spanner, please. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spanner/#x2)
- Turn the spanner to tighten the nut. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spanner/#x3)
- The plumber has a big spanner. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spanner/#x4)
- The rain threw a spanner in the works of our picnic. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spanner/#x5)
- Use the right size spanner for the nut. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spanner/#x6)

### note

Countable. UK, Australia, NZ, Ireland "spanner" = USA and Canada "wrench". Not the same as a screwdriver.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «spanner» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spanner/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.