sawed-off
Americanadjective
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sawed off at the end, as a shotgun or broomstick.
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Slang. smallish; of less than average size or stature.
Etymology
Origin of sawed-off
An Americanism dating back to 1865–70
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.
To disguise the swelling caused by hours of handshaking, Volk suggested Lincoln grasp a sawed-off broomstick.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 13, 2026
Conservationists also debate what to do with the sawed-off rhino horns.
From Salon • Jun. 16, 2025
“In the days of Al Capone, Congress said back then that short-barreled rifles and sawed-off shotguns should be subjected to greater legal requirements than most other guns,” the director of the A.T.F.,
From New York Times • Jan. 13, 2023
Then, the resolution and main character’s development hangs like a mostly sawed-off limb, as if Garland forgot about the woman at the center of “Men.”
From Seattle Times • May 17, 2022
As expressionless as the time she was a store mannequin, she sat in the wagon on a sawed-off chair, bracing herself with one hand on the driver’s plank and the other on the coffin box.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
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.
