Word: spanner
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...political ups & downs. One of his "downs" was to be expelled by Chancellor Schuschnigg last May from the Austrian Government in which he had been Vice-Chancellor. Last week he was still commander of the Heimwehr, chief private armed force in the country, and able to throw a spanner or two into governmental machinery. Provincial leaders of the Heimwehr, meeting to discuss their autumn program, had to decide whether to remain loyal to Starhemberg or transfer their allegiance to Starhemberg's former right hand man, Major Emil Fey. They could not lightly forget that Starhemberg had fed & clothed...
Author Ford Madox Ford, an almost U. S.-acclimatized Britisher, still makes little leaps in the dark when he comes to some Americanisms. He writes of a woman getting drunk as "canning herself"; makes Hero Smith figure out that the foreign word "valise" means "grip"; but neglects to translate "spanner" into monkey wrench...
Many a prurient and self-righteous U. S. racing pilot cried: "No wonder the A. A. A. socked him with a spanner! No Roumanian wop-frog who's livin' with a red-headed Jewess in Paris while his morganatic wife sues him for 10 million francs and his real wife is Princess Helen of Greece, should ought to be allowed in an American garage. I'll say his name is 'Morry Turp'! Moral Turpitude is right...