Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A long plank balanced on a central fulcrum so that with a person riding on each end, one end goes up as the other goes down.
- noun The act or game of riding a seesaw.
- noun A back-and-forth or up-and-down movement.
- noun An action or process in which something repeatedly changes from one condition or situation to another.
- intransitive verb To play on a seesaw.
- intransitive verb To move back and forth or up and down.
- intransitive verb To change back and forth from one condition or situation to another.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To move as in the see-saw; move backward and forward, or upward and downward; teeter: literally or figuratively.
- To cause to move or act in a see-saw manner.
- noun A motion of a steam-engine governor which oscillates on both sides of its mean or neutral position and causes the speed of rotation of the engine to vary above and below the mean.
- noun A sport in which two children sit one at each end of a board or long piece of timber balanced on some support, and move alternately up and down.
- noun A board adjusted for this sport.
- noun Any process resembling directly or indirectly the reciprocating motion of the see-saw.
- noun Especially
- noun A circular definition or proof; the definition of a word or thing by means of another which is itself defined by means of the first; the proof of a proposition by means of a premise which is itself proved from the first proposition as a premise.
- noun In whist, the playing of two partners so that each alternately trumps a low non-trump card led by the other; a double ruff; a cross-ruff.
- Reciprocating; reciprocal; back and forth, or up and down: as, a see-saw motion.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A play among children in which they are seated upon the opposite ends of a plank which is balanced in the middle, and move alternately up and down.
- noun A plank or board adjusted for this play.
- noun A vibratory or reciprocating motion.
- noun (Whist.) Same as
Crossruff . - transitive verb To cause to move backward and forward in seesaw fashion.
- adjective Moving up and down, or to and fro; having a reciprocating motion.
- intransitive verb To move with a reciprocating motion; to move backward and forward, or upward and downward.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A structure composed of a plank, balanced in the middle, used as a game in which one person goes up as the other goes down; a
teeter-totter - noun a series of up-and-down movements.
- noun a series of alternating movements or feelings
- verb To use a seesaw.
- verb To
fluctuate - adjective
fluctuating .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb move up and down as if on a seesaw
- verb move unsteadily, with a rocking motion
- noun a plaything consisting of a board balanced on a fulcrum; the board is ridden up and down by children at either end
- verb ride on a plank
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It relies on what they term "seesaw" logic gates, which we've diagrammed below.
Wired Top Stories John Timmer 2011
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It's what I call the "seesaw of pain" - somebody's always getting hurt.
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And the polls are about as steady as a seesaw, which is to say that if you pay too close attention, you could get motion sickness.
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JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson I can tell you it's being described as a seesaw battle for Monrovia on this fifth day of heavy fighting.
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The year 2009 could be described as a seesaw year for the newly formed English Defence League.
Indymedia Ireland from Hope Not Hate 2010
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In what is best described as a seesaw evening, the Crew finished down on the ground, losing the second game of the series to the Mets, 6-5, in 10 innings.
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In what is best described as a seesaw evening, the Crew finished down on the ground, losing the second game of the series to the Mets, 6-5, in 10 innings.
unknown title 2008
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In what is best described as a seesaw evening, the Crew finished down on the ground, losing the second game of the series to the Mets, 6-5, in 10 innings.
MVN 2008
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'A pretty so-called seesaw of checks finishes the game ... '
ChessBase News 2008
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The groups modern research techniques, which aren't based on unreliable computer models used by non-global warming denying scientists, came up with this conclusion: After the end of the last Glacial both Hemispheres became warmer as a result of melting ice sheets, but during the last 9000 years we can identify a persistent "seesaw" pattern.
Archive 2007-05-01 2007
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