(Britain, Ireland, mildly derogatory) A stupid or unintelligent person; one prone to making mistakes, especially in language.
an offensive word for a stupid person.
In Australia and the rest of the “spanner” countries, the term “wrench” is used for tools with an adjustable profile size such as the pipe wrench, tap wrench, and monkey wrench – tools that are used to turn non-fastening implements.
In North American English, wrench is the standard term. The most common shapes are called open-end wrench and box-end wrench. In American English, spanner refers to a specialized wrench with a series of pins or tabs around the circumference.
1. a fool; an unpleasant person. Eble Campus Sl. Fall 8: spanner – person who acts stupidly.
Outside of North America, spanner is just another word for “wrench.” If Americans want to ruin something, they “throw a wrench into it.” British people “throw a spanner in the works.” If you've ever needed to assemble something — like bookshelves — and needed to tighten or loosen a bolt, you probably needed a spanner.
The word spanner comes to us via Old English's Germanic roots — ultimately from the reconstructed Proto Indo European *pen or *spen -- which means “to draw” (as in “draw out”), “to stretch” or (importantly perhaps) “to spin”. One might imagine it as a “spinner”.
A spanner is the word for a wrench in England, so it's the British equivalent of “throwing a wrench in the works.”
wrench, also called spanner, tool, usually operated by hand, for tightening bolts and nuts.
A Spanner wrench is a specialized wrench with a series of pins or tabs positioned around the circular shaped wrench. These pins or tabs are designed to fit into specific holes on a workpiece or collet and are used to tighten or loosen the workpiece.
Aussie Word of the Week
Unco or The Man from Unco means awkward or clumsy. Typically used by schoolkids, unco is a shortened version of uncoordinated.
Weed-eater: Of all things, they call this a whipper snipper.
Dag: another word for a nerd or geek. Daks: Australians call their trousers 'daks'.
An insult usually applied to males, the slang expression tool refers to an insecure guy who has to buy friends and tries too hard to act cool. The tool is often the willing victim of manipulation by others and rarely realizes that he is the object of scorn.
Slang: Vulgar. to have sexual intercourse with.
the wrench indicates that the person whos name it's beside is a "moderator". moderators can provide info on the stream they are on, but mostly they are there to keep the chat clean and safe.
Also called, especially British, adjustable spanner. a wrench having an adjustable jaw permitting it to grasp nuts or the like of different sizes.
It got the name "monkey wrench" because the movement of the lower jaw up and down the wrench seemed to look like a monkey climbing up and down a branch. Once the monkey wrench was invented, a variety of modified wrenches and tools based on its basic design were also developed.
noun British Slang. head; skull: I was nearly blinded by the light reflecting off his freshly shaved, bloody great bonce.
In the UK, it is used as a variation on the word "ratshit" to mean something very bad.
Spanner, n. [e.m.E. spanner (1639), Germ. spanner.] An instrument for winding up the spring in a wheel-lock firearm.
spanner — 1630s, a tool for winding the spring of a wheel-lock firearm, from German Spanner, from spannen (see span (v.)). Meaning "wrench" is from 1790. The "wrench" connection is most likely related to the connection between "span" and "spin".
In the US, both fixed and adjustable tools are known as a wrench. However, in the UK, the fixed tool, which is size specific, is known as a spanner, and the adjustable type of tool is known as a wrench.