Seesaw
//ˈsiː.sɔː// adj, noun, verb
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A structure composed of a plank, balanced in the middle, used as a game in which one person goes up as the other goes down.
- 2 a plaything consisting of a board balanced on a fulcrum; the board is ridden up and down by children at either end wordnet
- 3 A series of up-and-down movements.
- 4 A series of alternating movements or feelings.
"He has been arguing in a circle; there is thus a see-saw between the hypothesis and the fact."
- 5 An abnormal breathing pattern caused by airway obstruction, characterized by paradoxical chest and abdominal movement. attributive
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- 6 A tactic in which a piece repeatedly gains material, while simultaneously creating an inescapable series of alternating direct and discovered checks.
Verb
- 1 To use a seesaw. intransitive
- 2 move unsteadily, with a rocking motion wordnet
- 3 To fluctuate. broadly, intransitive
"When I think of your kisses / My mind see-saws"
- 4 move up and down as if on a seesaw wordnet
- 5 To cause to move backward and forward in seesaw fashion. transitive
"He see-saws himself to and fro."
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- 6 ride on a plank wordnet
Adjective
- 1 fluctuating.
Example
More examples"Two girls played on the seesaw."
Etymology
Probably a frequentative imitative of rhythmic back-and-forth, up-and-down or zigzagging 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.
Related phrases
More for "seesaw"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.