monkey wrench
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monkey wrench
n.
1. A hand tool with adjustable jaws for turning nuts of varying sizes.
2. Informal Something that disrupts: He threw a monkey wrench into our plans.
[Origin unknown.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
monkey wrench
n
(Tools) a wrench with adjustable jaws
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
mon′key wrench`
n.
1. a wrench having an adjustable jaw for grasping nuts of different sizes.
2. something that interferes.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Monkey wrench

One of the few types of wrenches found on most early-twentieth-century farms. Its jaws were at right angles to the handle. One jaw was adjustable. The other, much heavier and at the end of the handle, was often used as a hammer. Charles Moncky apparently invented the wrench sometime before 1860.
1001 Words and Phrases You Never Knew You Didn’t Know by W.R. Runyan Copyright © 2011 by W.R. Runyan
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Noun | 1. | ![]() adjustable spanner, adjustable wrench - an adjustable tool for gripping hexagonal nuts, with an adjustings crew in the head of the implement |
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Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995