spanner

About 0.17 uses per million words.

Meaning

noun A hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts.
Pass me that spanner, Jake; there's just one more bolt to screw in.
noun Any of certain types of such a tool that have a pin or hook to engage the driven object.
The groove in this toolholder is what the spanner grabs onto when you are changing the tool.
noun One who, or that which, spans.
noun A (usually sparse) graph whose shortest path distances approximate those in a dense graph or other metric space.
noun A hand tool shaped like a small crank handle, for winding the spring of a wheel lock on a musket.
noun A device in early steam engines for moving the valves for the alternate admission and shutting off of the steam.
noun A problem, dilemma or obstacle; something unexpected or troublesome (in the phrase spanner in the works)
Halfway through the production of Macbeth, the director found that the stage was smaller than he expected. This really threw a spanner in the works.
noun A stupid or unintelligent person; one prone to making mistakes, especially in language.
You spanner, Rodney! I wanted some time, not a bunch of thyme!