Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A familiar saying, especially one that has become trite through repetition. synonym: saying.
- noun Any of various tools, either hand-operated or power-driven, having a thin metal blade or disk with a sharp, usually toothed edge, used for cutting wood, metal, or other hard materials.
- intransitive verb To cut or divide with a saw.
- intransitive verb To produce or shape with a saw.
- intransitive verb To make back-and-forth motions through or on.
- intransitive verb To use a saw.
- intransitive verb To undergo cutting with a saw.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To cut or divide with a saw; cut in pieces with a saw.
- To form by cutting with a saw: as, to
saw boards or planks (that is, to saw timber into boards or planks). - To cut or cleave as with the motion of a saw.
- In bookbinding, to score or cut lightly through the folded edges of, as the gathered sections of a book, in four or five equidistant spaces.
- To use a saw; practise the use of a saw; cut with a saw.
- To be cut with a saw: as, the timber saws smoothly.
- noun A saying; speech; discourse; word.
- noun A proverbial saying; maxim; proverb.
- noun A tale; story; recital. Compare
saga . - noun A decree.
- noun Synonyms Axiom, Maxim, etc. See
aphorism . - noun Preterit of
see . - noun A Scotch form of
salve . - noun A keyhole saw; a saw which has a very narrow, thin blade, so that it can turn comers.
- noun A circular saw turning in a vertical plane or with its shaft horizontal.
- noun A cutting-tool consisting of a metal blade, band, or plate with the edge armed with cutting teeth, worked either by a reciprocating movement, as in a hand-saw, or by a continuous motion in one direction, as in a circular saw, a band-saw, and an annular saw.
- noun A saw-blade together with the handles or frame to which the blade is attached, as a hand-saw, wood-saw, or hack-saw.
- noun In zoology and comparative anatomy, a serrated formation or organ, or a serrated arrangement of parts of formations or organs.
- noun A sawing-machine, as a scroll-saw or jig-saw.
- noun The act of sawing or see-sawing; specifically, in whist [U. S.], same as
see-saw , 3 . - noun In surgery, a trephine.
- noun Particularly, a saw used by lumbermen for cutting logs from tree-trunks, having an edge slightly convex in the cutting-plane, a handle at each end projecting from and at right angles with the back in the plane of the blade, and teeth filed so that the saw cuts when drawn in either direction. It is operated by two workmen, one at each handle.
- noun (See also back-saw, band-saw, belt-saw, buzz-saw, center-saw, chain-saw, fret-saw, gang-saw, gig-saw, ice-saw, jig-saw, rabbet-saw, ring-saw, etc.)
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- imp. of
see . - noun obsolete Something said; speech; discourse.
- noun A saying; a proverb; a maxim.
- noun obsolete Dictate; command; decree.
- intransitive verb To use a saw; to practice sawing.
- intransitive verb To cut, as a saw.
- intransitive verb To be cut with a saw.
- transitive verb To cut with a saw; to separate with a saw.
- transitive verb To form by cutting with a saw.
- transitive verb Also used figuratively.
- noun An instrument for cutting or dividing substances, as wood, iron, etc., consisting of a thin blade, or plate, of steel, with a series of sharp teeth on the edge, which remove successive portions of the material by cutting and tearing.
- noun See under
Band ,Crosscut , etc. - noun a disk of steel with saw teeth upon its periphery, and revolved on an arbor.
- noun a bench or table with a flat top for for sawing, especially with a circular saw which projects above the table.
- noun a three-cornered file, such as is used for sharpening saw teeth.
- noun the frame or sash in a sawmill, in which the saw, or gang of saws, is held.
- noun a saw frame.
- noun the form of cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney, in which the cotton fibers are drawn, by the teeth of a set of revolving circular saws, through a wire grating which is too fine for the seeds to pass.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I saw them on Idol last night and planned to check them out today..saw them on iTunes, but didn't check amazon yet.
Music Recommendation: New Morning by Alpha Rev Jeff C 2010
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While other people gazed across the beautiful grounds ofFortBenning and saw a rolling landscape dotted with enormous old trees, Guy only saw hell.
The Maverick Nelson, Rhonda 2006
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It blew aside, and I saw - I saw - Bel aid me, Conan, I say I saw\ My blood froze in my veins and my hair stood up.
The Conan Chronicles Howard, Robert E. 1989
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_Say what you like_, the three shop-attendants afterwards repeated to anyone who would listen, _say what you like, but we saw what we saw_.
The Satanic Verses Rushdie, Salman 1967
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When Althea saw Albert in khaki, she _saw_ him: this time no indifference, no fusing him with the crowd, no letting him fade away unnoticed.
On the Stairs Henry B. Fuller
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Yes, I have saw him wunst; and that Yes, _once_; and that was before was before you seed him. you _saw_ him.
English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Samuel Kirkham
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I saw the most unimaginable things with the women, with the men, with parents, and with the sweet, matchless children; I saw said the Shadow, what no human being must know, but what they would all so willingly knowwhat is bad in their neighbor.
The Shadow 1909
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Then, all at once, he saw, -- yea, verily, he _saw_, -- standing near the school entrance, a man from the great outer world!
Bonaventure A Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana George Washington Cable 1884
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I think the hallucination theory is out of court, too, and there is nothing left but the old-fashioned one, that what he said he saw, _he saw_, and did not fancy; and that which he said he heard, _he heard_; and that it was not a buzzing of a diseased nerve in his own ears, but the actual speech of the glorified Christ.
Expositions of Holy Scripture Second Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians Chapters I to End. Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy. Alexander Maclaren 1868
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I _saw_ her, I saw her, as I see you now, -- the proud young form with such a depth of grace, in its strange repose, and -- where are you going?
The Bride of Fort Edward Delia Bacon 1835
brobbins commented on the word saw
revealed
July 23, 2009