saw

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[edit] English

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[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Etymology 1

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 Dutch zaag (“saw”), German Säge (“saw”), Swedish såg (“saw”), Icelandic sög (“saw”), Latin secō (“cut”).

[edit] Noun

saw (plural saws)

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

[edit] Verb

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.
[edit] Related terms
[edit] Translations
cut with a saw
make a motion back and forth as with a saw

[edit] Etymology 2

From Middle English sawe, from Old English sagu, saga (“story, tale, saying, statement, report, narrative, tradition”), from Proto-Germanic *sagō, *sagōn (“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.

[edit] Noun

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
[edit] Synonyms
[edit] Translations
saying or proverb

[edit] Etymology 3

See see.

[edit] Verb

saw

  1. Simple past of see.

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Anagrams

[edit] Kurdish

[edit] Noun

saw

  1. terror
  2. horror

[edit] Scots

[edit] Pronunciation

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

[edit] Verb

saw

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