(n.) The lock of a fusee or carbine; also, the fusee or carbine itself.
(n.) 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.
(n.) A contrivance in some of the ealier steam engines for moving the valves for the alternate admission and shutting off of the steam.
Example Sentences:
(1) An open-ended torque release spanner was set for 0.9 Newton-metres for clinical use such that the compressive load is sufficient to prevent pull-out even in the unlikely event of 60 lb being applied for up to 21 days.
(2) Another spanner in the Brotherhood's works was the recent decision by the supreme constitutional court to dissolve parliament, in which it was the majority bloc through its political arm, the Freedom and Justice party.
(3) 9.07pm GMT Final score: Panthers 21-20 Falcons For a moment it appeared as though the Falcons were about to throw a spanner in the works, driving up to near midfield with 30 seconds left to play.
(4) And despite what he says, it would be very tough for him to beat her.” Clinton spent last summer fighting accusations of inappropriate use of a personal email server during her time as secretary of state, an issue that threw an unexpected spanner in what was initially seen as a clear path to the nomination.
(5) Fulham thought they'd secured the striker's scrawl, but it now seems that Big Sam might be on the verge of throwing a spanner in the works.
(6) He thinks the party’s current stance on solving 21st-century problems is as outdated as “trying to overhaul an Apple MacBook with a spanner” and says decisions should be made by members networked via the internet rather than in local party meetings in draughty church halls.
(7) Fittingly, most traces of this Michael Green’s HowToCorp company have since been erased from cyberspace, perhaps by his own software, jammed in reverse gear with an imaginary spanner.
(8) If this is the tone in which the UK proceeds, then throwing spanners in May’s works will be irresistible to many of them.
(9) "Kim Dotcom could throw a real spanner in the works of this year's general election," Bryce Edwards, a political commentator and lecturer at the University of Otago, wrote on his blog.
(10) Barclays' decision threatens to throw a spanner in the works as Somalia embarks on reconstruction.
(11) "Coalition government and Ukip have thrown spanners in the old assumptions," says Sanders.
(12) A Scandal in Bohemia opens with Conan Doyle sidelining feeling as "grit in a sensitive instrument", a spanner in the works of the world's "most perfect reasoning and observing machine".
(13) 7 Get a spanner Things are going to go wrong much more often, so expect mini-disasters.
(14) Two series of bivalent ligands (P-X-P) containing the (R,S)-3-[(4-aminoaryl)oxy]-1-(isopropylamino)propan-2-ol pharmacophore and a connecting alpha,omega-dicarbonylpoly(methylene) [X = -OC(CH2)nCO-] or alpha,omega-N,N'-bis(carbonylmethylene) polymethylenediamine [X = -OCCH2NH(CH2)nNHCH2CO-] spanner were synthesized and evaluated for beta-adrenoceptor antagonist activity in rat heart and lung membrane preparations.
(15) But there's another, easier way of establishing whether someone is two spanners short of a tool box.
(16) There’s a social stigma, too.” The design of the new devices, from masculine chrome pipes like luxury motorbike spanners to delicate diamanté bling-sticks, helps, too.
(17) In short, they are all much better riders than me and calmly slide out of their saddles at the end of the day while I limp off as if I have been sitting on a bag of spanners.
(18) More self-harm to report: a single decision with the potential to devastate the finances of millions, blight some of the poorest communities in the developing world and throw a spanner in the workings of our aid agencies.
(19) The data suggest that further increases in spanner length and lipophilicity and optical resolution may improve the potential of a labeled bivalent beta 1-adrenoceptor antagonist to function as a myocardial imaging agent.
(20) Jack Lang (@snap_kaka_pop) Potential spanner in the works for Everton?
Unexpected
Definition:
(a.) Not expected; coming without warning; sudden.
Example Sentences:
(1) In addition to the 89 cases of sudden and unexpected death before the age of 50 (preceded by some modification of the patient's life style in 29 cases), 11 cases were symptomatic and 5 were transplanted with a good result.
(2) It was recently demonstrated that MRL-lpr lymphoid cells transferred into lethally irradiated MRL- +mice unexpectedly failed to induce the early onset of lupus syndrome and massive lymphadenopathy of the donor, instead they caused a severe wasting syndrome resembling graft-vs-host (GvH) disease.
(3) This study provides strong and unexpected evidence that one admission to hospital of more than a week's duration or repeated admissions before the age of five years (in particular between six months and four years) are associated with an increased risk of behaviour disturbance and poor reading in adolescence.
(4) An unexpected result of the Greek crisis has been a flight of capital into British government bonds, which has seen gilt prices fall.
(5) It mostly happens to strong men whose biceps muscle are contracted and overstretched unexpectedly.
(6) The decision of the editors to solicit a review for the Medical Progress series of this journal devoted to current concepts of the renal handling of salt and water is sound in that this important topic in kidney physiology has recently been the object of a number of new, exciting and, in some instances, quite unexpected insights into the mechanisms governing sodium excretion.
(7) These results thus reveal an unexpected role of N-linked glycosylation in T-cell activation.
(8) Inoculated cell dose and neoplasia percent incidence have been noticed to be closely related, but unexpectedly two doses exist for each tumour, a comparatively small one and a definitely larger one, which cause nearly the same percent incidence.
(9) A hypothesis that the unexpected similarity of infection in the two strains was related to differences in rates of contact with the peat trays was not supported by preliminary data on mouse behaviour that revealed equal frequency of contact with peat trays between strains.
(10) Unexpectedly long retention times were noted for the chlorinated solvents, particularly for chloroforn, which showed a specific long-term retention in the cerebellum, meninges and spinal nerves, indicating interactions with specific nervous tissue receptors.
(11) Proceeding from the observation that organic anions bound to albumin have hepatic extraction fractions that are unexpectedly high, we have studied a distributed model that accounts for this phenomenon by invoking sites on the cell surface that catalyze the dissociation of albumin-anion complexes.
(12) The identification of the different alpha-subunit isoforms of the Na,K-ATPase has added an unexpected complexity to the understanding of the function and regulation of this important transport protein.
(13) Problems associated with cloth wear and the unexpectedly slow rate, in man, of tissue ingrowth into the fabric of the Braunwald-Cutter aortic valve prosthesis have been discouraging, although this prosthesis has been associated with a very low thromboembolic rate in patients receiving anticoagulant therapy.
(14) Unexpected displacement of the endotracheal tube during anesthesia caused by postural change of the neck or passive compression by the mouth gag was investigated under transluminal fiberoptic observation.
(15) 2) Surgery is often difficult, long full of unexpected findings and risks.
(16) Considering the density of helices along the RNA, it is not unexpected to find that all these sites lie in helical regions.
(17) An unexpected observation is that the termination region functions bidirectionally.
(18) No wonder public discussion of this most unexpected scientific development has so far been muted and respectful, waiting for the expert community that discovered the anomaly by accident – the Opera experiment at Gran Sasso was devised to isolate different varieties of neutrino, not to test Einstein – to work out what it all means, or doesn't.
(19) During CEHT, when the chair was suddenly and unexpectedly stopped, the eye promptly began to move in the orbit to track the moving target.
(20) In conclusion, management of unexpected SDT during OPU include the following therapeutic goals: (1) complete eradication of the tumor to eliminate the remote possibility of malignancy and recurrence; (2) performance of adequate peritoneal lavage to prevent chemical peritonitis; (3) conservation of the maximum amount of functional ovarian tissue; and (4) exclusion of the possibility of dermoid cyst in the contralateral ovary.