Other forms: chainsaws
A chainsaw is a petrol saw with teeth on a spinning loop, for trees. Start the chainsaw, a chainsaw injury, cut it with a chainsaw.
Protective trousers are made of loose fibres that pull out and jam the chain within a fraction of a second, which is the only reason leg injuries are survivable. Kickback at the tip is how most accidents happen. It was invented for surgery, not forestry.
1nounchainsawA petrol saw with teeth on a spinning loop.
“The noise of a chainsaw woke us as the workers cut down the old oak.”
chainsaw is a tool.
Chain plus saw, from the cutting chain that runs round the bar. The first versions were surgical tools.
chain + saw in reference to the chain-cutting mechanism.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA