saw

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

Such a tool with an abrasive coating instead of teeth.

(whist) The situation where two partners agree to trump a suit alternately, playing that suit to each other for the express purpose.

Sranan Tongo: sa

The noun from Middle English sawe, sawgh, from Old English saga, sagu (“saw”), from Proto-West Germanic *sagu, from Proto-Germanic *sagô, *sagō (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).
Cognate with West Frisian seage (“saw”), Dutch zaag (“saw”), German Säge (“saw”), Danish sav (“saw”), Swedish såg (“saw”), Icelandic sög (“saw”), and through Indo-European, with Latin secō (“cut”) and Italian sega (“saw”).
The verb from Middle English sawen, from the noun above.

rare, idiosyncratic, past tense of see (for example, as used by Dina Cappiello of the Associated Press)


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:

(transitive) To cut (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:

(intransitive) To make a motion back and forth similar to cutting something with a saw.

The timber saws smoothly.

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

to saw shingles

to saw out a panel

(transitive) To form or produce (something) by cutting with a saw.

en-verb

saw (third-person singular simple present saws, present participle sawing, simple past sawed, past participle sawed or sawn)

saws (present singular third-person)
sawing (participle present)
sawed (past)
sawed (participle past)
sawn (participle past)

鋸 /锯

make a motion back and forth as with a saw


saw

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:

(obsolete) Something spoken; speech, discourse.

old saw

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:

2017, Andrew Marantz, "Becoming Steve Bannon's Bannon", The New Yorker, Feb 13&20 ed.
There’s an old saw about Washington, D.C., that staffers in their twenties know more about the minutiae of government than their bosses do.

by thy saw

commune saw

on no saw

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

(obsolete) Proposal, suggestion; possibility.

[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:

From Middle English sawe, from Old English sagu, saga (“story, tale, saying, statement, report, narrative, tradition”), from Proto-West Germanic *sagā, from Proto-Germanic *sagō, *sagǭ (“saying, story”), from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷe-, *skʷē-, from *sekʷ- (“to say”).
Cognate with Dutch sage (“saga”), German Sage (“legend, saga, tale, fable”), Danish sagn (“legend”), Norwegian soga (“story”), Icelandic saga (“story, tale, history”). More at saga, say. Doublet of saga.


saw

Mr. Harbaugh. All instances that I have saw.

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

“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:

(colloquial, nonstandard) past participle of see