monkey wrench

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monkey wrench

monkey wrench

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

(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`

1. a wrench having an adjustable jaw for grasping nuts of different sizes.

2. something that interferes.

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.

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Noun

monkey wrench - adjustable wrench that has one fixed and one adjustable jaw

monkey-wrench

adjustable spanner, adjustable wrench - an adjustable tool for gripping hexagonal nuts, with an adjustings crew in the head of the implement

Translations

Engländer Franzose

clé anglaise

chiave inglese

monkey wrench

n → chiave f inglese a rullino

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

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References in periodicals archive ?

We were treated to a drum solo by Taylor Hawkins before the band rolled out anthems such as Monkey Wrench and This is a Call.

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He lamented that there was "always a monkey wrench" in government transactions.

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Full marks once again to Chief Justice Saqib Nisar for suspending the LHC decision ordering revision of candidates nomination papers that all but put a monkey wrench in the works as far as timely elections were concerned.

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Journalists, authors, scholars, a field scientist, an environmental historian, and others from the US offer scholarly perspectives that apply Abbey's ideas to the post-9/11 era, immigration, the Grand Gulch essay, and the 21st century; discuss Abbey in the context of Alaska, The Monkey Wrench Gang, and Desert Solitaire; and present personal reflections on Abbey from friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, as well as new authors.

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He travels to Lake Powell, formed by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, which obliterated the glorious canyon and spawned the eco-terrorism movement called monkey wrenching (inspired by Abbey's novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang).

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986,419), a combination tool containing a monkey wrench, pipe wrench, screwdriver and a set of thread-cutting dies.