"whipsaw" meaning in English

See whipsaw in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: En-us-whipsaw.oga
Etymology: From whip + saw. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|whip|saw}} whip + saw Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} whipsaw (not comparable)
  1. Having the characteristic of arguing two sides at once. Tags: not-comparable
    Sense id: en-whipsaw-en-adj-mExjGGwR

Noun

Audio: En-us-whipsaw.oga Forms: whipsaws [plural]
Etymology: From whip + saw. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|whip|saw}} whip + saw Head templates: {{en-noun}} whipsaw (plural whipsaws)
  1. A rip saw often operated by two people. Translations (saw): бичкия (bičkija) [feminine] (Bulgarian), 雙人橫鋸 (Chinese Mandarin), 双人横锯 (shuāngrénhéngjù) (Chinese Mandarin), tukkisaha (Finnish), hirsisaha (Finnish), justeeri (Finnish), kransåg [common-gender] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-whipsaw-en-noun-y4DFJa4B

Verb

Audio: En-us-whipsaw.oga Forms: whipsaws [present, singular, third-person], whipsawing [participle, present], whipsawed [past], whipsawn [participle, past]
Etymology: From whip + saw. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|whip|saw}} whip + saw Head templates: {{en-verb||||whipsawn}} whipsaw (third-person singular simple present whipsaws, present participle whipsawing, simple past whipsawed, past participle whipsawn)
  1. To operate a whipsaw.
    Sense id: en-whipsaw-en-verb-TupbhiFz
  2. (transitive, finance) To cause (a trader) to lose potential profit by buying shares just before the price falls, or by selling them just before the price rises. Tags: transitive Categories (topical): Finance
    Sense id: en-whipsaw-en-verb-VKWbsVo1 Topics: business, finance
  3. (transitive) To defeat someone in two different ways at once. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-whipsaw-en-verb-x8TQeFTx
  4. Of a trade union: to coerce employers into capitulating by bringing them the news that other (more easily convinced) employers have already done so.
    Sense id: en-whipsaw-en-verb-f5GGSnpY
  5. (US politics) To accept bribes from multiple parties at once, with the intent of letting down one or more of them. Tags: US Categories (topical): US politics, Saws
    Sense id: en-whipsaw-en-verb-7w2idNfi Disambiguation of Saws: 12 15 5 12 13 11 31 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Bulgarian translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with Mandarin translations, Terms with Swedish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 4 4 3 21 6 21 41 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 6 12 7 18 8 17 32 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 5 7 4 16 9 19 41 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 3 6 3 18 4 20 45 Disambiguation of Terms with Bulgarian translations: 8 15 4 16 11 12 32 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 8 15 4 21 8 12 32 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 6 11 5 23 7 15 33 Disambiguation of Terms with Swedish translations: 8 15 4 17 9 13 34 Topics: government, politics

Inflected forms

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          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "bičkija",
          "sense": "saw",
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            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "бичкия"
        },
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          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "saw",
          "word": "雙人橫鋸"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "shuāngrénhéngjù",
          "sense": "saw",
          "word": "双人横锯"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "saw",
          "word": "tukkisaha"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "saw",
          "word": "hirsisaha"
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          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "saw",
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          "code": "sv",
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          "sense": "saw",
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          ],
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        "present"
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      "form": "whipsawed",
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          "kind": "topical",
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            "Social sciences",
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        "To cause (a trader) to lose potential profit by buying shares just before the price falls, or by selling them just before the price rises."
      ],
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        "(transitive, finance) To cause (a trader) to lose potential profit by buying shares just before the price falls, or by selling them just before the price rises."
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        "transitive"
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          "text": "Whipsawed by events and facing another midterm electoral defeat, President Obama has directed his team to forge a policy agenda to regain momentum for his final two years in office even as some advisers urge that he rethink the way he governs.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "To defeat someone in two different ways at once."
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      "tags": [
        "transitive"
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        "Of a trade union: to coerce employers into capitulating by bringing them the news that other (more easily convinced) employers have already done so."
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          "capitulating",
          "capitulate"
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Swedish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
          "_dis": "12 15 5 12 13 11 31",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Saws",
          "orig": "en:Saws",
          "parents": [
            "Tools",
            "Technology",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
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        "To accept bribes from multiple parties at once, with the intent of letting down one or more of them."
      ],
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          "bribe"
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          "let down"
        ]
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        "(US politics) To accept bribes from multiple parties at once, with the intent of letting down one or more of them."
      ],
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        "US"
      ],
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        "government",
        "politics"
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          "ref": "2018, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Philip Rucker, “When you lose that power’: How John Kelly faded as White House disciplinarian”, in Washington Post:",
          "text": "During the Porter crisis, Kelly found himself under intense scrutiny for the veracity of his whipsaw statements. He publicly praised Porter and privately urged him to stay.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "Having the characteristic of arguing two sides at once."
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        "A rip saw often operated by two people."
      ],
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    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "bičkija",
      "sense": "saw",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "бичкия"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "saw",
      "word": "雙人橫鋸"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "shuāngrénhéngjù",
      "sense": "saw",
      "word": "双人横锯"
    },
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      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "saw",
      "word": "tukkisaha"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "saw",
      "word": "hirsisaha"
    },
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      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "saw",
      "word": "justeeri"
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      "code": "sv",
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    }
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        "To cause (a trader) to lose potential profit by buying shares just before the price falls, or by selling them just before the price rises."
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        "(transitive, finance) To cause (a trader) to lose potential profit by buying shares just before the price falls, or by selling them just before the price rises."
      ],
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        "transitive"
      ],
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          "ref": "2014 November 1, Peter Baker, Michael D. Shear, “Braced for a shift in Congress, Obama is setting a new agenda [print version: Obama plots a route for compromise after election, International New York Times, 3 November 2014, p. 1]”, in The New York Times:",
          "text": "Whipsawed by events and facing another midterm electoral defeat, President Obama has directed his team to forge a policy agenda to regain momentum for his final two years in office even as some advisers urge that he rethink the way he governs.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To defeat someone in two different ways at once."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "defeat",
          "defeat"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To defeat someone in two different ways at once."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
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      "glosses": [
        "Of a trade union: to coerce employers into capitulating by bringing them the news that other (more easily convinced) employers have already done so."
      ],
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          "trade union",
          "trade union"
        ],
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        [
          "capitulating",
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        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:US politics"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To accept bribes from multiple parties at once, with the intent of letting down one or more of them."
      ],
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        [
          "bribe",
          "bribe"
        ],
        [
          "letting down",
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US politics) To accept bribes from multiple parties at once, with the intent of letting down one or more of them."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
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      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From whip + saw.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "whipsaw (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Philip Rucker, “When you lose that power’: How John Kelly faded as White House disciplinarian”, in Washington Post:",
          "text": "During the Porter crisis, Kelly found himself under intense scrutiny for the veracity of his whipsaw statements. He publicly praised Porter and privately urged him to stay.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Having the characteristic of arguing two sides at once."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-us-whipsaw.oga",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ed/En-us-whipsaw.oga/En-us-whipsaw.oga.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/En-us-whipsaw.oga"
    }
  ],
  "word": "whipsaw"
}

Download raw JSONL data for whipsaw meaning in English (6.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.