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buzzsaw

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buzzsaw

Where it comes from

From buzz + saw.

noun buzzsaws

  1. A circular saw. Agriculture Secretary Edward T. Schafer is preparing to walk into a buzzsaw of criticism over American biofuels policy when he meets with world leaders to discuss the global food crisis next week.
  2. slang Someone or something that makes a loud, harsh, grinding or rasping noise, like that of a circular saw. No danger of these buzzsaws waking up, it was enough to make you wish for impaired hearing.
  3. slang The MG 42 general-purpose machine gun. Golden tracers from the jaggering MG42 buzzsaw lit up the air like glitter, and from both directions there were bee-hive-volumes of whizzes and snaps as bullets passed through the air, in some cases only feet from them.
  4. slang A violently destructive attack. The changes ran into a buzzsaw of Congressional criticism.
  5. One who attacks violently and/or mindlessly. So he keeps away from the intellectual buzzsaws; and, as both philology and philosophy grow ever more and more technical, the gap between them, if anything, widens.

verb buzzsaws · buzzsawing · buzzsawed

  1. transitive To cut with a circular saw.
  2. colloquial, intransitive To spin rapidly like the blades of a circular saw. The 7.62 tumblers would buzzsaw through the flimsy protection offered by the float.
  3. ambitransitive, colloquial To produce a loud, harsh noise like that of a circular saw. When the sun comes early through eastern windows and a single horsefly buzzsaws the air it is then I rise from bed my dreams of amputation, of teeth lost, cloaked in the amnesia of another day overwhelmed with trivia.

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MLA

"buzzsaw." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/buzzsaw. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

buzzsaw. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/buzzsaw

Chicago

"buzzsaw." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/buzzsaw.

BibTeX
@misc{buzzsaw_2026,
  title = {buzzsaw},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/buzzsaw},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}