A Spanner is a wrench having a hook, hole, or pin at the end for meshing with a related device on another object or, (Chiefly British) --a wrench.

Which explains Rod Stewart's Album -- A Spanner in the Works. Live and learn.

NOTE: David McAnally was good enough to send along a scan of the "Spanner" card from his Cluedo game. Thanks David.

Shortly after I wrote the above reference about Rod Stewart I got an email from David, a listmember whose comments are always welcome. It reads, in part:

"[a spanner in the works] is a very old expression which probably dates back to either early this century, or sometime last century (post-dating the 'Industrial Revolution'), and means an obstacle which 'gums up the works'. The expression probably originated when someone, working on machinery with a spanner, dropped the spanner into the machinery and the machinery stopped as a result of the spanner being 'in the works'. An amusing pun on this expression was used by John Lennon for the cover of his second book, which he called "A Spaniard in the Works", and which has a photo of John Lennon, dressed as a Spaniard (like Zorro) and holding a spanner, on its cover! Another time when a spanner was mentioned was in a very short science fiction story (which I heard read out in the very early 1980's) which involved a spaceship which ventured too close to some star (maybe a neutron star), and was virtually crushed, except for a single tool which managed to escape the vicinity, to be later discovered - this being: "the star-mangled spanner".

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