jigsaw
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
adjective
noun
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a mechanical saw with a fine steel blade for cutting intricate curves in sheets of material
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See jigsaw puzzle
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of jigsaw
Explanation
A jigsaw is a sharp power tool that's used for cutting curvy lines in wood or other materials. While most saws can only cut in a straight line, a jigsaw makes it easier to cut complicated patterns and shapes. If you were making a jigsaw puzzle out of wood, you'd use a jigsaw. In fact, this is where the "jigsaw puzzle," (which is also simply called a jigsaw), got its name. The original meaning comes from the word jig and its sense of "up and down motion," which describes the way a jigsaw moves as it cuts.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Anuska Tilden, 67, was working on a jigsaw puzzle one recent morning at the local senior center.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
"It's unlocked an important piece of the jigsaw," he says.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
"I was absolutely gobsmacked... that bit of the jigsaw has come together," Gareth said.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
An older sister turns to sewing her bin of fabric scraps into a quilt top or putting together a jigsaw puzzle to get her dopamine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
Stravinsky's style - the jerky jigsaw of adjacent, unrelated musical segments - was also abandoned.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
In the most recent example, Time magazine this week launched Time Games, featuring online word puzzles and jigsaws made from its iconic magazine covers.
From Barron's ● May 16, 2026
It’s trying to go through these moral jigsaws to kind of justify certain things to themselves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2024
And the retailer offers a collection of dynamic, artsy jigsaws from Puzzles of Color, a company started by Texas siblings Ericka Chambers and William Jones to promote artists of color.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 15, 2022
"You do have to be good at jigsaws in this game - it's not just as straightforward as people think," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2022
More clutter on the third floor: boxes of jars, metal disks, and rusty jigsaws; buckets of what might be electrical components; engineering manuals in piles around a toilet.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
On the album’s cover, his jigsawed visage lies in the grass — either a heartbroken Humpty Dumpty or pop music’s missing piece.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 5, 2021
These constant shifts of scene can be whiplash-inducing, and, at times, the chapters can feel jigsawed together — patchworks of examples undergirding premises stretched thin by all they are forced to contain.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 23, 2020
Wachtendonk said that folks will usually ask of the flying machines, jigsawed together with found objects, rotisserie motors and leftover rivets, embellished with metal lanterns, tiny wheels and painted wings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2019
Ochoa has just opened his second restaurant, Salazar, a Sonora-style barbecue place jigsawed into the former mechanic’s shop for which it’s named.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2016
She set it on the table and pried back the jigsawed lid.
From The Pagan Madonna by Koerner, W. H. D. (William Henry Dethlef)
She spends her days jigsawing state and federal funding sources for new water systems, and answering residents’ frequent calls about when they’ll be connected.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
Then, staffers from the White House Office of Records Management were generally responsible for jigsawing the documents back together, using clear tape.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 5, 2022
South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.5% to 3,205.83 after jigsawing earlier in the day.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 11, 2021
Though they had some wiggle room, it still took an entire summer of jigsawing to get it to work at Moravian and Swain, for example, school leaders said.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 20, 2021
This allowed them to continue jigsawing dislocated fragments to put their own ideas into Nietzsche’s mouth.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 6, 2018
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.
