sawtooth

[ saw-tooth ]

noun

, plural saw·teeth [saw, -teeth].

1. one of the cutting teeth of a saw.
2. any of the small parallel roof structures forming a sawtooth roof.

adjective

1. having a zigzag profile, similar to that of the cutting edge of a saw; sawtoothed; serrate:

   a sawtooth mountain range.

sawtooth

/ ˈsɔːˌtuːθ /

adjective

1. (of a waveform) having an amplitude that varies linearly with time between two values, the interval in one direction often being much greater than the other
2. having or generating such a waveform

Word History and Origins

Origin of sawtooth¹

First recorded in 1595–1605; saw ¹ + tooth

Example Sentences

Because plants take up CO2 as they grow in spring and summer and release it as they decompose in fall and winter, CO2 concentrations rose and fell each year in a sawtooth pattern.

From Science News

There are banksia bushes with their sawtooth-edge leaves and dried seed cones like multiple jabbering mouths.

From The Daily Beast

I had struck the trail of a single deer that was going down a short sawtooth point or a short spur of the main ridge.

From Project Gutenberg

The next day Jack Sawtooth showed up, tired out, fresh from the wilderness.

From Project Gutenberg

There were many such, for the Sawtooth, powerful and stern against outlawry, tolerated no pilfering from their thousands.

From Project Gutenberg

As to the Sawtooth, forty thousand acres comprised their holdings under patents, deeds and long-time leases from the government.

From Project Gutenberg

It had grown to be second nature,—and it had made him a good man for the Sawtooth Cattle Company to have on its pay roll.

From Project Gutenberg