saw1

noun

• a hand tool for cutting wood or other hard materials, typically with a long, thin serrated blade and operated using a backwards and forwards movement.
• a mechanical power-driven tool for cutting which has a toothed rotating disc or moving band.
• Zoology a serrated organ or part, such as the toothed snout of a sawfish.

verb (past participle chiefly British sawn /sɔːn/ or chiefly North American sawed)

• 1 [with object] cut (something) using a saw:the top of each post is sawn off at railing height [no object]:thieves escaped after sawing through iron bars on a window
• make or form (something) using a saw:the seats are sawn from well-seasoned elm planks
• cut (something) as if with a saw, especially roughly or so as to leave rough or unfinished edges:the woman who sawed off all my lovely hair
• [no object] make rapid sawlike motions in cutting, or in playing a stringed instrument:he was sawing away energetically at the loaf

• 2 [no object] (saw off) Canadian (of two or more people) compromise by making concessions to one another:they sawed off over wages and concluded the deal