buzz saw

buzz saw

See also: buzzsaw and buzz-saw

English

A buzz saw

Alternative forms

• buzz-saw

Noun

buzz saw (plural buzz saws)

1. A powerful, noisy, motorized saw, typically having a rotary blade with large teeth, sometimes portable and sometimes mounted into a table.
   • 1905, Henry Adams, chapter 12, in The Education of Henry Adams:

     The American mind exasperated the European as a buzz-saw might exasperate a pine forest.

   • 1916, Robert Frost, "Out, Out–":

     The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard

     And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood

   • 1987 May 25, David Brand, "Tick, Buzz, It's That Time Again Locusts?," Time (retrieved 27 May 2014):

     A population in full song can exceed 100 decibels, roughly the level of a circular buzz saw at full throttle.

   • 2003 April 14, John Tagliabue, "Another Daring Jailbreak Embarrasses French Government," New York Times (retrieved 27 May 2014):

     [T]hree inmates were freed today by accomplices who descended on a prison in central France in a helicopter, then used a buzz saw to rip through security netting.

Synonyms

• circular saw

References

• buzz saw at OneLook Dictionary Search