sb. [f. WHIP sb. or v. + SAW sb.] A frame-saw with a narrow blade, used esp. for curved work.
1538. Elyot, Runcina, a whypsawe, wherwith tymber is sawen.
1552. in P. H. Hore, Wexford (1901), 243. In the Storehouse at the Mynes … a whypp sawe.
1556. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 100. In Maid’s chamber … 11 old wood chests and a whype sawe.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 107. Three whip-sawes, going all at once in a Frame or Pit.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., vi. 99. The Whip-Saw is used … to Saw such greater peeces of Stuff that the Hand-Saw will not easily reach through;… two men takes each an handle of the Saw.
1846. Holtzapffel, Turning, II. 701. The long saw, pit saw, or whip saw. Ibid., 703. The blade [of the pit frame-saw] is usually five or six feet long, and thinner than that of the whip saw.
1903. Nancy H. Banks, Round Anvil Rock, ii. The rich dark wood of its walls and floor—all rudely smoothed with the broadaxe and the whip-saw.
Hence Whip-saw v., intr. to work a whip-saw; trans. to cut with a whip-saw; fig. (U.S. slang) to have or get the advantage of thoroughly, to overcome completely, ‘cut up’; Whip-sawyer, a man who works a whip-saw.
1881. Lumber World (U. S.), March. Some of the first saw mills built in England … were destroyed … on the ground that it would ruin the occupation of the whip sawyers.
1884. Hartford (Conn.) Post, Sept. Had Braddock been half as prudent as he was brave, he could … have whipsawed the French and Indians in that campaign.
1904. Eliz. Robins, Magnetic North, ii. 26. He would come out and show us how to whip-saw.
1918. R. Dollar, Mem., vi. 62–3. These [trees] are hewn in the woods either on two or four sides, and are then whip-sawn by the natives at the place of consumption.
