sawdust

[ saw-duhst ]

/ ˈsɔˌdʌst /

noun

small particles of wood produced in sawing.

Nearby words

Origin of sawdust

First recorded in 1520–30; saw¹ + dust

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sawdust

Before the FDA started cracking down, grocers might stretch your coffee with other kinds of beans, your flour with sawdust.
The Great Sushi Scam|Megan McArdle|April 4, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Today Maddow concedes that occasionally she must come down off her trapeze and strut in the sawdust with the rest of the circus.
Rachel's Accidental War|Lloyd Grove|August 24, 2010|DAILY BEAST
One kind of carpenter-ant covers its walls with a mixture of sawdust, earth, and spiders' webs.
The Adventures of a Grain of Dust|Hallam Hawksworth
I could not get near Tod and Harry Parker; but they whistled at me across the sawdust and the fancy steeds performing on it.
Johnny Ludlow, Second Series|Mrs. Henry Wood

His leg, with several other limbs, lay in a basket of sawdust beneath the table.
John Deane of Nottingham|W.H.G. Kingston
The recorded species of Pluteus have their habitat on tree stumps, sawdust, or upon fallen timber.
Student's Hand-book of Mushrooms of America, Edible and Poisonous|Thomas Taylor
I tried one of those some time ago and it tasted like sawdust mixed with sausage finely ground and then baked.
Bill Bruce on Forest Patrol|Henry Harley Arnold

British Dictionary definitions for sawdust

sawdust

/ (ˈsɔːˌdʌst) /

noun

particles of wood formed by sawing

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sawdust

sawdust

1520s, from saw (n.1) + dust (n.).