Fretsaw

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A saw consisting of a metal frame having a fine-toothed narrow blade held under tension, used in making curved cuts.

    "She led Dr Grimsby out to the workshop, where Peter was at work on the marquetry table. He had the two veneers clamped together and was cutting the inlay pattern with the finest of fretsaws."

  2. 2
    fine-toothed power saw with a narrow blade; used to cut curved outlines wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To cut with a fretsaw. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
jigsawjigsawsawscroll sawscroll saw

Example

More examples

"She led Dr Grimsby out to the workshop, where Peter was at work on the marquetry table. He had the two veneers clamped together and was cutting the inlay pattern with the finest of fretsaws."

Etymology

From fret + saw.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.