seesaw

«seesaw» in Mova's school dictionary: A long board balanced in the middle on which two children… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a seesaw, seesaws); verb (seesaw, seesaws, seesawed, seesawing)

meaning for a pupil

1) A long board balanced in the middle on which two children sit at opposite ends and go up and down. tree →

2) (verb) To move up and down or back and forth again and again, or to keep changing between two states. tree →

sense in the lessons

In playground life it is a favourite toy (in the USA also called a teeter-totter). In science and maths it shows balance and levers: a heavier child must sit nearer the middle. In stories, feelings or a score can seesaw. Phrases: on the seesaw, seesawing prices.

examples

• We went up and down on the seesaw at the park. tree →
• Dad is heavier, so he sat nearer the middle of the seesaw to balance it. tree →
• A seesaw is a kind of lever. tree →
• The score seesawed all game until the last goal. tree →
• My mood seesawed between happy and nervous before the concert. tree →
• Hold on tight on the seesaw and don't jump off suddenly. tree →

note

Also written see-saw. Americans also say teeter-totter. In lever problems, weight times distance from the middle must match on both sides for it to balance.

In the corpora

• On a seesaw, a heavy person near the middle can balance a light person far from the middle.
• Seesaws, scissors, wheelbarrows, bottle openers, nutcrackers, tongs and even your own arm are all levers.
• A seesaw balances when the heavier person sits closer in: someone twice as heavy balances at half the distance from the middle.
• A tower crane works like a seesaw.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «seesaw» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.