TO PUT A SPOKE IN ONE’S WHEEL (or CART), verb. phr. (old).—To do an ill turn. Occasionally (by an unwarrantable inversion) = to assist.
1661–91. Merry Drollery [EBSWORTH, 1875], 224.
| He had a strong, and a very stout heart, | |
| And look’d to be made an Emperour for’t, | |
| But the Divel did SET A SPOKE IN HIS CART. |
1689. God’s Last Twenty-Nine Years Wonders [WALSH]. Both … bills were such SPOKES IN THEIR CHARIOT-WHEELS that made them drive much slower.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 19. Rolando put a SPOKE IN THEIR WHEEL by representing that they ought at least to wait till the lady … could come in for her share of the amusement.
1855. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, ix. There’s a SPOKE IN YOUR WHEEL, you stuck-up little old Duchess.
1872. G. ELIOT, Middlemarch, xiii. It seems to me it would be a very poor sort of religion TO PUT A SPOKE IN HIS WHEEL by refusing to say you don’t believe.
1898. W. S. WALSH, Handy-book of Literary Curiosities, 1030. When solid wheels were used, the driver was provided with a pin or SPOKE, which he thrust into one of the three holes made to receive it, to skid the cart when it went down-hill.
