someone's wheel, put a spoke in

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someone's wheel, put a spoke in prevent someone from carrying out a plan; the expression is recorded from the late 16th century in the form ‘I will sett a spoke to your cogge’; the current form became established in the early 17th century. Spoke here is probably a mistranslation of Dutch spaak meaning ‘bar, stave’.

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someone's wheel, put a spoke in

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