put a spoke in someone's wheel

English

Verb

put a spoke in someone's wheel (third-person singular simple present puts a spoke in someone's wheel, present participle putting a spoke in someone's wheel, simple past and past participle put a spoke in someone's wheel)

1. To thwart or obstruct someone in the execution of some design.
   • 1951 December, T. B. Sands, “Some Railway Byways in the Vale of Glamorgan”, in Railway Magazine, page 838:

     The original branch was 5¾ miles long, from Llantrisant to Cowbridge only, but in 1889, the T.V.R. [Taff Vale Railway] obtained powers […] to continue the line for 6½ miles south to the coast at Aberthaw, ostensibly for the purpose of serving the important limestone works there, but one suspects other motives, including an understandable desire on the part of the T.V.R. to put a spoke in the wheel of the oncoming Barry Railway !

   Synonyms: fix someone's flint, settle someone's hash

Translations

to thwart a design — see also throw a spanner in the works

• Czech: házet klacky pod nohy (cs)
• Danish: sætte en kæp i hjulet (da)
• Dutch: stokken in de wielen steken (nl)
• German: einen Strich durch die Rechnung machen
• Vietnamese: thọc gậy bánh xe
• Welsh: torri ar chwarae rhywun (literally “to cut someone's play”)

See also

• throw a spanner in the works
• throw a wrench in the works

Further reading

• “put a spoke in wheel”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “put a spoke in wheel”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “put a spoke in wheel” in Idioms and phrases, TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.
• “put a spoke in someone's wheel”, in Collins English Dictionary.