seesaw

CEFRA1

/ˈsiː.sɔː/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A playground board that moves up and down around a center.

  2. 02

    verb

    To move repeatedly up and down or between two conditions.

Examples

  • Tom and Mary were playing on the seesaw.

  • Two girls played on the seesaw.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
4
Synonyms
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A series of up-and-down movements.

  2. 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.

  3. A series of alternating movements or feelings.

More examples

In context

  • He has been arguing in a circle; there is thus a see-saw between the hypothesis and the fact.

  • Manchester Citykept up their unbeaten start to the Premier League season with victory over QPR in an entertaining see-saw encounter at Loftus Road.

  • When I think of your kisses / My mind see-saws

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The two girls laughed as they went up and down on the blank.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.