English · Idiom Candidate

in the works

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

being planned or developed

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

đang được lên kế hoạch hoặc phát triển

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: projects or activities in progress

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

This controversy has threatened to cast a pall over a much - heralded summit between two of the world ’s great democracies.

The show has, he said, ‘ something of the air of a school reunion about it’, and with a few exceptions ‘ it is the Pound business much as usual’.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Equivalents & related

Near equivalent thọc gậy bánh xe to put a spoke in someone's wheel; to throw a spanner in the works Tiếng Việt Near equivalent throw a spanner in the works To cause problems or disrupt plans English · via thọc gậy bánh xe Near equivalent spanner in the works Something that causes problems or disrupts plans English · via thọc gậy bánh xe

Lighter cards are two steps away in the meaning graph — equivalents of equivalents, reached via the entry shown on the card.

Common questions

What does “in the works” mean?

being planned or developed Literally: projects or activities in progress

Is “in the works” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

What is the closest equivalent?

“thọc gậy bánh xe” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.