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.
One such release was Claude Design in April, which some saw as a direct competitor to offerings from design company Figma, one of Anthropic’s partners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
The feat followed trial and error that initially saw him mollycoddle corals in stress-free environments, but those easily perished in the ocean once transplanted.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
Those born between 1987 and 1991 were entering the workforce just after the financial crash and saw a big fall in earnings.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
The company also saw a record $3.1 billion in free cash flow in the fiscal year, it said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 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
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
It was not clear Tuesday whether the four were clients of SAW Inc.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 23, 2021
I SAW a girl on a Manhattan-bound subway train one day wearing a knockoff Louis Vuitton head scarf and false eyelashes long enough to make a daddy longlegs envious.
From New York Times ● Nov. 29, 2014
I SAW her across the room when I awoke, reading a newspaper, her glasses low across the bridge of her nose as she stared at the page intently.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
But it also means that the horns grow back and need to be sawed off repeatedly.
From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2025
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
For the majority of Americans, one of those legs has been effectively sawed off without an available pension.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2024
My dad sawed off a piece of chicken and stuffed it in his mouth.
From "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henríquez
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
That’s like sawing the magician in half and never putting them back together again.
From Salon ● Nov. 8, 2025
The high-pitched sound of an angle grinder sawing through glass echoed through the hall.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
I scowled as I dropped the slab of meat on the board and began sawing at it with a cleaver.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
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
Under the direction of our guard we carried and stacked sawn boards from the mill to a huge shed where lumber was stored through the winter.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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.
