a tool or device for cutting, typically a thin blade of metal with a series of sharp teeth.
any similar tool or device, as a rotating disk, in which a sharp continuous edge replaces the teeth.
to cut or divide with a saw.
to form by cutting with a saw.
to make cutting motions as if using a saw.
to saw the air with one's hands.
to work (something) from side to side like a saw.
to use a saw.
to cut with or as if with a saw.
to cut as a saw does.
any of various hand tools for cutting wood, metal, etc, having a blade with teeth along one edge
any of various machines or devices for cutting by use of a toothed blade, such as a power-driven circular toothed wheel or toothed band of metal
to cut with a saw
to form by sawing
to cut as if wielding a saw
to saw the air
to move (an object) from side to side as if moving a saw
First recorded before 1000; Middle English noun sau(e), soue, zaue, Old English saga, sagu; cognate with Dutch zaag, Old Norse sǫg, German Säge, all meaning “saw”; akin to Latin secāre “to cut,” Old English seax “short sword, knife, dagger”; the verb is derivative of the noun; see also sax 2, section
First recorded before 950; Middle English sau(e), sauhe, sagh(e) “talk, words, something said,” Old English sagu “a saying, speech, narrative”; cognate with German Sage “legend, fable, myth, tradition,” Old Norse saga “statement, tale, story, history”; see also saga, say 1
A saw is a tool that's used to cut wood. It can be a hand tool or a power tool, and it usually has either a blade or a disk with a jagged cutting edge. The verb saw means to cut through wood or another material using a saw or other tool. If you are going to build a bookcase, you have to saw the wood into the proper lengths. It's a good idea to measure it twice so you only have to saw it once. When you're faced with a tough piece of meat, you might have to saw at it just to cut off a bite.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They saw the number of children increase 7% over the past decade—while their overall population grew 12%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
"When the ball came to me, I just put the foot through it, saw it nestle in the top corner and the rest is history."
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
I wasn’t thinking about that when I first saw “Thelma & Louise” because my 40s were far away enough to not even consider that detail.
From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026
An AFP reporter saw on Sunday that police had been deployed to the suspect's alleged address, around one kilometre south of the scene of the attack.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
The light, airy butterflies I used to feel when I saw him whip their red flags, scratch the walls of my stomach.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Most existing SAW systems require two separate chips and an external power source.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 17, 2026
I SAW a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2022
That decision came after an internal Pfizer report that Holmes said she never SAW? had expressed doubts about the reliability of Theranos’ blood tests.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 23, 2021
“HE SAW HER LIVE,” an ad for the event read, using the same image.
From New York Times ● Jan. 21, 2018
YOU are the one who did something wrong, I say, because I SAW him push William H. out of his Personal Space.
From "Mockingbird" by Kathryn Erskine
In director Guillermo del Toro’s take on the classic fable Frankenstein, Elordi glows an undead white as the monster, his body a patchwork of human parts sawed off of Crimean War corpses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2025
He came, he sawed, he conq—well, he left.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2025
First, it was just a limb sawed from a tree at a North Figueroa Street intersection on April 13.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2025
Goldie's mate, Regina, had her own adventure when she was snatched the following February by student pranksters at Manchester University who sawed through a padlock to access the cage.
From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2025
A locust’s lazy rasping sawed the air from the nearby oak trees.
From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
Emergency workers stood on the charred roof, still smelling of burning, sawing off damaged sections and tossing the debris into a pile.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
The high-pitched sound of an angle grinder sawing through glass echoed through the hall.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
He said: "The finances aren't good, the margins are wafer thin. It's a lot of sawing for not much sawdust, as my grandfather used to say."
From BBC ● May 27, 2025
I saw one guy in a pickup had stopped and was sawing off the head of a dead stag — presumably for the antlers, but maybe he was just hungry.
From Salon ● Oct. 24, 2024
She rummaged through a stack of lumber, brought several long, narrow pieces over to a pair of sawhorses, and began sawing them into paired lengths.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
It had been in my family for three generations — an upright of quarter sawn oak that probably hadn’t been properly tuned for years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2025
He said his lifelong love affair with theatre stemmed in part from seeing his sister being sawn in half as a conjuror's assistant at a local music hall.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2024
A statue of British naval officer James Cook, who in 1770 charted Sydney’s coast, was sawn off at the ankles, and a Queen Victoria monument was doused in red paint.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 25, 2024
Rift sawn white oak flooring grounds the space.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 10, 2022
The wild bushes that'd muffled the House in the Woods'd been sawn back to size.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
