spanner

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: span=ner

CIDE DICTIONARY

spanner, n. 

•  One who, or that which, spans.  [1913 Webster]
•  The lock of a fusee or carbine; also, the fusee or carbine itself.  [1913 Webster]
•  An iron instrument having a jaw to fit a nut or the head of a bolt, and used as a lever to turn it with; a wrench; specifically, a wrench for unscrewing or tightening the couplings of hose.  [1913 Webster]
•  A contrivance in some of the earlier steam engines for moving the valves for the alternate admission and shutting off of the steam.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

spanner, n.
1 Brit. an instrument for turning or gripping a nut on a screw etc. (cf. WRENCH).
2 the cross-brace of a bridge etc.

Idiom

a spanner in the works Brit. colloq. a drawback or impediment.

Etymology

G spannen draw tight: see SPAN(2)