whipsaw
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
whipsaws,
present (3rd person singular)
-
whipsawed,
past
-
whipsawn,
past participle
-
whipsawing
present participle
-
to cut with a whipsaw.
-
to win two bets from (a person) at one turn or play, as at faro.
-
to subject to two opposing forces at the same time.
The real-estate market has been whipsawed by high interest rates and unemployment.
verb (used without object)
-
whipsaws,
present (3rd person singular)
-
whipsawed,
past
-
whipsawn,
past participle
-
whipsawing
present participle
noun
verb
-
to saw with a whipsaw
-
to defeat in two ways at once
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
whipsawsimple
-
whipsawssimple
-
have whipsawnperfect
-
has whipsawnperfect
-
am whipsawingprogressive
-
are whipsawingprogressive
-
is whipsawingprogressive
-
have been whipsawingperfect progressive
-
has been whipsawingperfect progressive
Past
-
whipsawedsimple
-
had whipsawnperfect
-
was whipsawingprogressive
-
were whipsawingprogressive
-
had been whipsawingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of whipsaw
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.
See Examples For:
The weekend brought another stretch of whipsaw headlines for traders, starting Saturday when President Trump announced the near “finalization” of a pact with Iran that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026
The market has been hit by whipsaw moves, underscoring how investors are struggling to price in the financial implications of the geopolitical shock.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 4, 2026
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.2%, with tech stock swings making the HS Tech index whipsaw.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
Officials have long warned that continued climate change could whipsaw California between precipitation extremes, with the state trending toward aridity, interspersed with exceptionally wet years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025
It took nice work to whipsaw lumber and keep it true to the line.
From A Trip to California in 1853 Recollections of a Gold Seeking Trip by Ox Train across the Plains and Mountains by an Old Illinois Pioneer by Washington Bailey
The best response to the stock market’s whipsaws is to ignore them.
From MarketWatch ● May 2, 2026
Investors have continued to rotate money into international equities, with European and emerging-market funds drawing steady inflows even as U.S. tech whipsaws.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026
A Santa rally is not guaranteed, and if 2025 has taught investors anything—with whipsaws from tariffs, artificial intelligence, and more—it is to expect the unexpected.
From Barron's ● Dec. 22, 2025
And on a structural level, the storytelling of “IF” itself is a mess: a heartfelt but dramatically inert endeavor that whipsaws between tones ranging from whimsical to morose.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2024
No sawmills in the Orient, but thousands of men laboriously converting logs into lumber by means of whipsaws.
From Where Half The World Is Waking Up The Old and the New in Japan, China, the Philippines, and India, Reported With Especial Reference to American Conditions by Clarence Hamilton Poe
The won experienced sharp bouts of depreciation earlier this year, whipsawed by geopolitical headwinds that pushed up the dollar, concerns about domestic growth and rate differentials with the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Despite growing confidence among traders and analysts that oil prices are poised to climb anew, speculators whipsawed by nearly five-months of on-again, off-again war are retreating.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
SpaceX’s expansion of Starlink has whipsawed satellite stocks in recent years, and its plans are being closely watched across the telecom industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Even software, which took a beating early this year on fears that AI will displace many of their offerings, has whipsawed.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
After the service, as the remaining worshippers gathered outside the church, news whipsawed through the crowd that North Korean troops had crossed the 38th parallel.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
The steamer Grahame was built at Chipewyan of whipsawn lumber, and much of her steel and ironwork was wrought on Wyllie's forge.
From The New North by Agnes Deans Cameron
He liked to play loudly, for many hours at a time, improvising ceaseless and whipsawing sagas of frenetic melodies and emphatic blaring and screeching—it was a whole lot of sound.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
In the face of whipsawing mortgage rates, spring home buyers want something certain.
From MarketWatch ● May 7, 2026
But an extra day when little else is trading—at a time when breaking news from the Middle East is whipsawing markets —is a chance for Bitcoin to shine.
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
The past few weeks of stock market whipsawing have been a gut check for internet communities that swelled in numbers during the usually excellent markets of the past five years.
From Slate ● Mar. 17, 2025
No word came from the cousins beyond, so they knew they must be at work chopping down the standing trees and whipsawing them into boat-planks.
From Smoke Bellew by Jack London
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.
