SPANNER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Spanner

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/spˈænər/ Listen

noun

spanner n.

One who, or that which, spans.

The lock of a fusee or carbine; also, the fusee or carbine itself. (Obs.)

An iron instrument having a jaw to fit a nut or the head of a bolt, and used as a lever to turn it with; a wrench; specifically, a wrench for unscrewing or tightening the couplings of hose. (Chiefly British usage)

pl. A contrivance in some of the earlier steam engines for moving the valves for the alternate admission and shutting off of the steam.

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Etymology of 'Spanner'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Spanner" Quotes from Famous Books

... behind a bulkhead door at one end of the control room. I listened, and again the sound was repeated. With the lighter still flickering in my hands, I got to my feet. The bulkhead door was jammed, but I found a heavy telargeium spanner-wrench on the floor, and with a strength which frightened me—a strength which could have come only by some upset condition of gravitation—I soon crashed the door open. I had no sooner done it, however, than I forgot about the moan which had ...

— The Winged Men of Orcon - A Complete Novelette • David R. Sparks

... the armorer's and there he bought that very suit for which he had yearned so short a time before. Then and there he tried it on in the booth, Wat and his boy walking round him with spanner and wrench, fixing bolts and ...

— Sir Nigel • Arthur Conan Doyle

... bit, Jim," replied Terry, working away like a madman with spanner and screw-wrench; "if I can but loosen this nut I can disconnect this bent rod and replace it in ...

— Under the Chilian Flag - A Tale of War between Chili and Peru • Harry Collingwood

... she was not going to be sentimental. "If you mean that you lost the spanner, you don't seem to have suffered much. I think you were asleep when I rode up. But I was surprised to hear you had begun to farm again. Do you like it? And how ...

— The Girl From Keller's - Sadie's Conquest • Harold Bindloss

... bad workman who complains of his tools, yet even the best of them may be justly annoyed when his spanner ...

— Mr. Punch Awheel - The Humours of Motoring and Cycling • J. A. Hammerton

... of the seventh week out, their ennui vanished. A ship was picked up by the spec-spanner, and at their delight at the break in routine, they summoned Arnold up ...

— Unspecialist • Murray F. Yaco