2.put a spoke in somebody’s wheelBritish EnglishBrEPREVENT to prevent someone from doing something they have planned 阻挠某人的计划
Examples from the Corpus
spoke• He drew every spoke in the wheels, and the whole affair looked as if it had been instantaneously petrified or arrested.• Twenty four spokesslide over a fixedcam, so that as they move they change length and unbalance the wheel.• Her fingers still clung to the spokes, keeping one wheel out of action.• Schyns has re-invented the old idea of a wheel with unbalanced spokes.• Harper rode up to the man and saw the broken wheel spokesimpaled in his belly and groin.