Seesaw Definition
sēsô
see-saw, seesawed, seesawing, seesaws
noun
seesaws
A plank balanced on a support at the middle, used by children at play, who ride the ends so that when one goes up, the other comes down.
Webster's New World
The act of riding a plank in this way.
Webster's New World
Any up-and-down or back-and-forth movement or change, as in the lead in a competition.
Webster's New World
An action or process in which something repeatedly changes from one condition or situation to another.
The seesaw in temperatures.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
- dandle board
- tilting board
- teeterboard
- teetertotter
- teeter-totter
- teeter
- hickey horse
- alternation
verb
seesawed, seesawing, seesaws
To play on a seesaw.
American Heritage
To move on or as on a seesaw.
Webster's New World
To move back and forth or up and down.
American Heritage
To change back and forth from one condition or situation to another.
The lead see-sawed for much of the tennis match.
American Heritage
(intransitive) To fluctuate.
Wiktionary
Origin of Seesaw
-
Probably a frequentative imitative of rhythmic back-and-forth, up-and-down or zigzaging motion, such as teeter-totter, zigzag, flip-flop, ping-pong, etc., under the umbrella term of reduplication; also likely influenced by the verbs see and saw of either present or past tense.
From Wiktionary
Reduplication of saw
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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