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handsaw

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,929 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: handsaws

A handsaw is a saw pushed and pulled by hand alone. Cut it with a handsaw, sharpen the handsaw, a fine-toothed handsaw.

Western ones cut on the push and Japanese ones on the pull, which lets the blade be thinner and the cut finer. A handsaw is still faster than fetching a power saw for a single cut.

Mnemosine · Public domain

Definitions of handsaw

  1. 1nounhandsawA saw pushed and pulled by hand alone.B2+

    “With no electricity at the cabin, he had to cut the planks with a handsaw.”

handsaw is a tool.

Where it comes from

Middle English handsawe is hand plus saw, with the same compound across the Germanic languages.

  1. Middle English

    handsawe

  2. English, today

    handsaw

From Middle English handsawe, handsagh, equivalent to hand + saw. Cognate with West Frisian hânseage (“handsaw”), Dutch handzaag (“handsaw”), German Handsäge (“handsaw”), Danish håndsav (“handsaw”), Swedish handsåg (“handsaw”), Icelandic handsög (“handsaw”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Tools & DIY

Practise this word

handsaw in the wild

  • "Montserrat" literally means "serrated (like the common handsaw) mountain" in Catalan.

    Montserrat (mountain)

  • Shaping and cutting AAC can be done with a handsaw.

    Autoclaved aerated concrete

  • The name could be derived by the Jewish Ser, meaning "mountains", or it could refer to the shape of a handsaw.

    Serre Calabresi

  • Serving suggestions included using a small handsaw instead of a knife, and a quarter-size sheet pan as a platter, mimicking a laboratory tray.

    Feetloaf

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.