saw

plural saws

1. A tool used for cutting hard substances, in particular wood or metal.
   1. usuallySuch a tool with a toothed blade.

      Meronyms: sawtooth < sawblade

   2. sometimesSuch a tool with an abrasive coating instead of teeth.
2. A musical saw.
3. A sawtooth wave.
4. The situation where two partners agree to trump a suit alternately, playing that suit to each other for the express purpose.

present singular third person saws · participle present sawing · past sawed · participle past sawed · participle past sawn

1. transitiveTo cut (something) with a saw.

   They were stoned, they were sawen asunder, were tempted, were slaine with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskinnes, and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 11:37

2. intransitiveTo make a motion back and forth similar to cutting something with a saw.

   He said he was sometimes whistling a tune to himself — for, like me, he sawed a good deal on the fiddle; […]

   1835, James Hogg, The Story of Euphemia Hewit

3. intransitiveTo be cut with a saw.

   The timber saws smoothly.

4. transitiveTo form or produce (something) by cutting with a saw.

   to saw shingles

   3 more examples

   to saw boards or planks (i.e. to saw logs or timber into boards or planks)

   to saw out a panel

   Locally sawn lumber—whether from small mills, local yards, or urban logs—often shows much more variation.

   2026 August 28, Logan Wittmer, “Whiskey Cabinet”, in Popular Woodworking, volume 290, number 4, page 53

plural saws

1. obsoleteSomething spoken; speech, discourse.

   And for thy trew sawys, and I may lyve many wynters, there was never no knyght better rewardid[…]. And for your true discourses, and I may live many winters, there was never no knight better rewarded[…].

   1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC

2. archaicA saying or proverb.

   old saw

   2 more examples

   And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances.

   c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii], lines 152-5

   At his crowning[…] the priest in his honour preached on the saw, 'Vox populi, vox Dei.'

   1902, Charles Robert Ashbee, Masque of the Edwards of England, page 8

   Synonyms: byword, saying, adage, proverb, maxim, apothegm, apophthegm, dictum

3. obsoleteOpinion, idea, belief.

   on no saw

   by no means

   2 more examples

   by thy saw

   in your opinion

   commune saw

   common opinion/knowledge

4. obsoleteProposal, suggestion; possibility.

   c. 1350-1400, unknown, The Erl of Toulous All they assentyd to the sawe; They thoght he spake reson and lawe.

5. obsoleteDictate; command; decree.

   [Love] rules the creatures by his powerful saw.

   1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “Colin Clouts Come Home Againe”, in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

1. pastsimple past of see
2. colloquialnonstandardparticiplepastpast participle of see

   Mr. Harbaugh. All instances that I have saw.

   1907, Report of the Special Committee of Investigation of the Government Hospital for the Insane, Government Printing Office, page 297

   2 more examples

   “I think so. He might have saw him already. Shit dude, I don't know. You run the place.”

   2006, K.C. Carceral, Prison, Inc: A Convict Exposes Life Inside a Private Prison, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 68

   “I might have saw something,” I told him. “At least I think I might have saw something. Only I couldn't say what.”

   2014 October 7, Frances O'Roark Dowell, Anybody Shining, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 110

1. proscribedsometimesIslamصَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ (ṣallā llāhu ʕalayhi wa-sallama, “peace be upon him”)

   Synonyms: PBUH, AS

plural SAWs

1. USabbreviationinitialismgovernmentInitialism of squad automatic weapon or initialism of section automatic weapon, a kind of light machine gun.
2. abbreviationinitialismnatural sciencesInitialism of surface acoustic wave.
3. abbreviationacronymAcronym of solar array wing

1. abbreviationinitialismentertainmentInitialism of Stock Aitken Waterman, an English songwriting and record production trio.

plural Saws · alternative Sawh

1. A surname.

plural Saws · alternative Sawh

1. slangAfrican-American VernacularA Bahamian.

   Since Tea Cake and Janie had friended with the Bahaman workers in the ’Glades, they, the “Saws,” had been gradually drawn into the American crowd.

   1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Harper Perennial, published 2000, page 154