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.
USO saw large inflows when oil prices started to rise at the beginning of March, following the start of the Iran conflict, and flows increased as prices approached their peak.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
It was a spin-off from the main Mastermind series that launched three decades earlier and saw members of the public answer questions on general knowledge as well as a specialist subject.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
Fox and Telemundo saw strong audience levels topped only by the Super Bowl.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
MedSurg, the company’s business focused on gastrointestinal and urological devices, saw sales rise 5.9% in the quarter, while its cardiovascular segment’s revenue increased 8.3%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Under the microscope lens, Hooke saw that the tissue inside a cork tree was made up of rows of tiny, boxlike structures.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Traditional SAW devices typically max out at around 4 gigahertz, making the new system far faster.
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
And at 4 p.m. on Thursday, SAW will hold a public march outside the capitol building in Olympia.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2020
“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
Performance and illusion are recurring themes: A woman is sawed in half in a depiction of classic stagecraft; elsewhere a juggler manipulates ovoids that each contain an everyday vignette.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
He came, he sawed, he conq—well, he left.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 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
But my green thumb ached as workers sawed down the tree, took away everything — trunk, twigs, leaves, fruit, roots — in biohazard bags and tagged the remaining trees with a bill of clean health.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2024
But the Professor never stopped for a moment; he sawed down a couple of feet along one side of the lead coffin, and then across, and down the other side.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
She has now been competing in logrolling for 28 years and began sawing and chopping more recently.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
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
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
With a final, melancholic sawing, the piece was over.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
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
A giant gorilla statue which was stolen from a Lanarkshire garden centre a year ago was "sawn in half" before being discarded under a hedge, according to its owner.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 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
I entered the immaculate little shop, redolent of freshly sawn pine and oak, and found him working at a shrieking band saw.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
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.
