put/throw a spanner in the works

idiom

informal

: to cause something to not go as planned

We were ready to start the project when the bank threw a spanner in the works by denying the loan.

Examples of put/throw a spanner in the works in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Then episode seven does kind of throw a spanner in the works because finally you are introduced to what Mark had on the outside world, which feels meaningful too. —Stephanie McNeal, Glamour, 21 Mar. 2025

Join 11 others in the comments View Comments But Thursday’s scathing commentary from a newspaper closely aligned with the ruling Communist Party could throw a spanner in the works. —Juliana Liu, CNN, 14 Mar. 2025

Yet present-day consumer usage appears set to throw a spanner in the works. —IEEE Spectrum, 9 Feb. 2025

But the injuries to Giorgio Scalvini and Gianluca Scamacca, and a stand-off between the club and Teun Koopmeiners, who wants to force a move to Juventus, throw a spanner in the works. —James Horncastle, The Athletic, 14 Aug. 2024

McCarthy, for instance, largely used his perch to put a spanner in the works of the legislative process while pushing the ridiculous investigations favored by right-wing media and the party’s most radical members. —Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 24 Oct. 2023

There is a strong suspicion that nicotine can throw a spanner in the works throughout this time — a particular concern given the growing popularity of vaping among young people. —Anthony King, Scientific American, 13 June 2023

Coronavirus did throw a spanner in the works: MedFin ceased operations in the first week of March as outpatient departments and operation theaters shut. —Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz India, 9 Aug. 2020

However, a new paper just published in PLoS ONE could throw a spanner in the works of the thriving Google Books research paradigm. —Neuroskeptic, Discover Magazine, 10 Oct. 2015