monkey wrench

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A wrench (spanner) with an adjustable jaw.

   • Did you ever stop to think whether or not you knew how a monkey wrench should be used?
   • With a monkey wrench on the hexagonal part of the stuffing box unscrew the stuffing box from the body of the faucet.
   • There were two monkey wrenches for that, sitting in a bucket. Lisa held one wrench and I applied the other and in a few minutes we had removed the motor head and set it on the ground.
2. 2

   An unexpected or troublesome problem, obstacle or dilemma.

   • Professor Miller's careful research has thrown a monkey-wrench into the Einstein wheel, although it has far from discouraged the enthusiastic exponents of Einsteinism.
   • It has been suggested that myocilin missense mutations that cause severe disease are monkey wrenches, causing disease through actively causing a problem rather than through a lack of the gene product or function.
3. 3

   To apply a monkey wrench, e.g. to tighten or loosen nuts.

4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      To introduce problems, to create unexpected trouble, to sabotage.

      • I think it’s possible that [US Vice President J.D.] Vance didn’t intend to monkey wrench [the meeting with US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky].

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