Tom Sawyer

proper noun

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a popular 1876 novel by Mark Twain about a young boy growing up in the Antebellum South on the Mississippi River.

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Meanings

proper noun
  1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a popular 1876 novel by Mark Twain about a young boy growing up in the Antebellum South on the Mississippi River.
verbTom Sawyer (third-person singular simple present Tom Sawyers, present participle Tom Sawyering, simple past and past participle Tom Sawyered)

present singular third person Tom Sawyers · participle present Tom Sawyering · participle past Tom Sawyered · past Tom Sawyered

  1. To convince someone to volunteer, especially to do something which one should do oneself.

Origin

The verb is a reference to the title character of the novel.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Tom Sawyer. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tom%20Sawyer

MLA

“Tom Sawyer.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tom%20Sawyer. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Tom Sawyer,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tom%20Sawyer.

Source: Tom Sawyer on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.