Word
sawyer
Phoneticssawyer
US/ˈsɔɪɝ/
UK/sˈɔɪɐ/
Definitions
01woodcutter
n. a person whose job is to saw wood, especially in the past.
n. a person who saws timber as an occupation, historically associated with manual labour in a sawpit.
“The old sawyer spent his days cutting large logs into planks for the village.”
“Before the advent of industrial mills, the sawyer was a vital figure in the local economy, responsible for the arduous task of hand-sawing timber.”
Archaic
Usage
Often used in historical or literary contexts to describe traditional woodcraft.
Synonyms
02river hazard
n. a large tree trunk stuck in a river that moves up and down with the water.
n. a fallen tree trunk lodged in a riverbed with its branches bobbing on the surface, posing a danger to boats.
“The boat captain had to watch out for a sawyer hidden just below the water.”
“The pilot navigated the steamboat with extreme caution, scanning the muddy surface for the rhythmic dip of a sawyer that could pierce the hull.”
American English · Dialect
Teaching tip
This sense is specific to North American river navigation and is famously used in 19th-century American literature.
Synonyms
Etymology
* As an English occupational surname, from sawyer (“one who saws”). Senses loaned from various languages include Jewish/German Seger and Sager, Slovene Žagar. * As a French surname, variant of Seguin.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/sawyer