saw

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Contents

English[edit]

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Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

A saw—a tool

From Middle English sawe, from Old English saga, sagu (“saw”), from Proto-Germanic *sagô, *sagō (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). Cognate with West Frisian seage (“saw”), Dutch zaag (“saw”), German Säge (“saw”), Danish sav (“saw”), Swedish såg (“saw”), Icelandic sög (“saw”), and through Indo-European, with Latin secō (“cut”).

Noun[edit]

saw (plural saws)

  1. A tool with a toothed blade used for cutting hard substances, in particular wood or metal
  2. A musical saw.
  3. A sawtooth wave.
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from saw (noun)
Translations[edit]
tool
musical saw — see musical saw
sawtooth wave — see sawtooth

Verb[edit]

saw (third-person singular simple present saws, present participle sawing, simple past sawed, past participle sawed or sawn)

  1. (transitive) To cut (something) with a saw.
  2. (intransitive) To make a motion back and forth similar to cutting something with a saw.
    The fiddler sawed away at his instrument.
  3. (intransitive) To be cut with a saw.
    The timber saws smoothly.
  4. (transitive) To form or produce (something) by cutting with a saw.
    to saw boards or planks (i.e. to saw logs or timber into boards or planks)
    to saw shingles; to saw out a panel
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
cut with a saw
make a motion back and forth as with a saw

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English sawe, from Old English sagu, saga (“story, tale, saying, statement, report, narrative, tradition”), from Proto-Germanic *sagō, *sagǭ (“saying, story”), from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷe-, *skʷē- (“to tell, talk”). Cognate with Dutch sage (“saga”), German Sage (“legend, saga, tale, fable”), Danish sagn (“legend”), Norwegian soga (“story”), Icelandic saga (“story, tale, history”). More at saga, say.

Noun[edit]

saw (plural saws)

  1. (obsolete) Something spoken; speech, discourse.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book V:
      And for thy trew sawys, and I may lyve many wynters, there was never no knyght better rewardid [...].
  2. (often old saw) A saying or proverb.
  3. (obsolete) opinion, idea, belief; by thy ~, in your opinion; commune ~, common opinion; common knowledge; on no ~, by no means.
    Þe more comoun sawe is þat Remus was i-slawe for he leep ouer þe newe walles of Rome. — Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden
  4. (obsolete) proposal, suggestion; possibility.
    All they assentyd to the sawe; They thoght he spake reson and lawe. — Earl of Toulouse
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
saying or proverb

Etymology 3[edit]

See see.

Verb[edit]

saw

  1. Simple past of see.

Statistics[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Kurdish[edit]

Noun[edit]

saw gender unspecified

  1. terror
  2. horror

Scots[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA: /sa/ (Doric & most Southern Scots dialects)
  • IPA: /sɔ/ (Central & some Southern Scots dialects)

Verb[edit]

saw

  1. (South Scots) Simple past of sei.
  2. (N. & C. Scots) Simple past of see.
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