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Monkey wrench   /mˈəŋki rɛntʃ/   Listen
noun
monkey wrench, monkeywrench  n.  A wrench or spanner which has one fixed and one adjustable jaw.
Synonyms: monkey wrench.



Wrench  n.  
1.
Trick; deceit; fraud; stratagem. (Obs.) "His wily wrenches thou ne mayst not flee."
2.
A violent twist, or a pull with twisting. "He wringeth them such a wrench." "The injurious effect upon biographic literature of all such wrenches to the truth, is diffused everywhere."
3.
A sprain; an injury by twisting, as in a joint.
4.
Means; contrivance. (Obs.)
5.
An instrument, often a simple bar or lever with jaws or an angular orifice either at the end or between the ends, for exerting a twisting strain, as in turning bolts, nuts, screw taps, etc.; a screw key. Many wrenches have adjustable jaws for grasping nuts, etc., of different sizes.
6.
(Mech.) The system made up of a force and a couple of forces in a plane perpendicular to that force. Any number of forces acting at any points upon a rigid body may be compounded so as to be equivalent to a wrench.
Carriage wrench, a wrench adapted for removing or tightening the nuts that confine the wheels on the axles, or for turning the other nuts or bolts of a carriage or wagon.
Monkey wrench. See under Monkey.
Wrench hammer, a wrench with the end shaped so as to admit of being used as a hammer.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Monkey wrench" Quotes from Famous Books



... were known it ought to be by rights. He sure enough thinks it is, though. Why, Uncle Pete, there can't a butterfly flit over these grounds that Adam ain't a yellin' how there's an aeroplane a sailin' around lookin' fer a chance to drop a monkey wrench on his head ...
— Helen of the Old House • Harold Bell Wright

... Sunday evening. The plumbing had frozen in our absence; when I lit the furnace again, pipes began to thaw and for an hour or so we had a lively time. In the course of a battle with a pipe and a monkey wrench I sprained a thumb, and the next morning I stopped at the drugstore on my way to the train to get ...
— Shandygaff • Christopher Morley

... remote time, when a hawse was a hawse, and you couldn't have it put all over you by a lot of slick young smarties that could do a few things with a monkey wrench. Starling, when he thus discoursed, sat chiefly in the little office before the rusty stove, idly flicking his memory with a buggy whip from the rack above his head, where reposed a dozen choice whips soon to become ...
— The Wrong Twin • Harry Leon Wilson

... Niantic, Ill.—This invention has for its object to furnish an improved monkey wrench, which shall be simple in construction, strong, durable, and easily and quickly adjusted to the ...
— Scientific American, Vol.22, No. 1, January 1, 1870 • Various

... turned their attention upon Scraggs, who had dodged below like a frightened rabbit and sought shelter in the shaft alley. He had sufficient presence of mind, as he dashed through the engine room, to snatch a large monkey wrench off the tool rack on the wall, and, kneeling just inside the alley entrance he turned at bay and threatened the invaders with this weapon. Thereupon Hicks and Flaherty pelted him with lumps of coal, but the sole result of this assault ...
— Captain Scraggs - or, The Green-Pea Pirates • Peter B. Kyne



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