seesaw
Americannoun
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a recreation in which two children alternately ride up and down while seated at opposite ends of a plank balanced at the middle.
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a plank or apparatus for this recreation.
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an up-and-down or a back-and-forth movement or procedure.
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Whist. a crossruff.
adjective
verb (used without object)
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to move in a seesaw manner.
The boat seesawed in the heavy sea.
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to ride or play on a seesaw.
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to keep changing one's decision, opinion, or attitude; vacillate.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a plank balanced in the middle so that two people seated on the ends can ride up and down by pushing on the ground with their feet
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the pastime of riding up and down on a seesaw
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an up-and-down or back-and-forth movement
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( as modifier )
a seesaw movement
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verb
Regionalisms
Although seesaw (def. 2) is the most widely used term in the U.S., teetertotter is also in wide use in the Northern, North Midland, and Western regions. Tilting board and its variants tilt board and tiltering board are New Eng. terms, especially Eastern New Eng., while tinter and its variant teenter are associated with Western New Eng.
Other Word Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has seesawedperfect 3rd person singular
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have seesawedperfect
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seesawingparticiple
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seesawssingular 3rd person
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am seesawingprogressive 1st person singular
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is seesawingprogressive 3rd person singular
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have been seesawingperfect progressive
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has been seesawingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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are seesawingprogressive
Past
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had seesawedperfect
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seesawedsimple
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seesawedparticiple
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was seesawingprogressive singular
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had been seesawingperfect progressive
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were seesawingprogressive plural
Future
Etymology
Origin of seesaw
1630–40 as part of a jingle accompanying a children's game; gradational compound based on saw 1
Explanation
A seesaw is a piece of playground equipment made of a board balanced on a center support. To play on a seesaw, you sit on one end with a friend on the other end, moving up and down. You might also call a seesaw a teeter-totter — they are common in parks and on school playgrounds. When you sit on a seesaw, with your friend on the opposite side, each of you takes turns pushing up off the ground. When you go up into the air, your friend touches the ground, and when your friend goes up, you go down. Seesaw comes from the French ci-ça, or "this-that."
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.
All this during a rather seesaw start of the year for Netflix investors.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 3, 2026
Now the seesaw is going in the other direction.
From Barron's • Mar. 10, 2026
They are integral parts of a dynamic structural system—their weight of stone pushing the walls outward while the flying buttresses outside push them inward—the two forces exactly matching, like a perfectly balanced seesaw.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 3, 2025
To the 73 million Americans whose financial lives depend on the viability of Social Security, those first months were a seesaw of apprehension and rumor.
From Salon • Sep. 9, 2025
If she tried to rest, the craft swung sideways with a terrifying seesaw motion.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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.
