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.
Etymology
Origin of seesaw
1630–40 as part of a jingle accompanying a children's game; gradational compound based on saw 1
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.
The 23-year-old struck in the 85th minute of a seesaw Premier League struggle in northeast England.
From Barron's • Feb. 9, 2026
“SIX Sevennnnnn,” they squeal with a palms-up, seesaw hand gesture that looks somewhere between juggling and melon handling.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 14, 2025
On the other side of that seesaw expectantly sits his daughter’s faith in him.
From Salon • Sep. 23, 2025
But Tower Bridge's roads were too heavy to be opened in that way, so it is instead a bascule bridge, in which the roads move like a seesaw and pivot.
From BBC • Dec. 30, 2024
We’d been breaking into arguments all year, teetering on a seesaw of perpetual imbalance, because he was always either one way or the other.
From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia
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.
