saws

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of saw.

   Carpenters often own a dozen different saws for different kinds of cuts.

   The old saws hung rusting in the abandoned shed.

   Note

   A regular plural that carries every sense of the noun with it: cutting tools with teeth or with an abrasive edge, musical saws, and even sawtooth waves. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so the surrounding words decide which is meant. A determiner points to the noun (the saws, two saws), while a subject in front points to the verb (she saws).

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of saw.

   The carpenter saws along the pencil line to keep the edge clean.

   Whenever a limb blocks the trail, she saws it off and clears the way.

   Note

   The -s form belongs only to the cutting verb. Saw is also the past tense of see, but a past tense never takes -s, so saws cannot mean anything to do with seeing. It covers the transitive uses (saws the board, saws a notch) and the intransitive back-and-forth motion, as when someone saws away at a tough steak. Its spelling twin is the plural noun.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2