| 释义 |
whip-saw, n.|ˈhwɪpsɔː|
Also whipsaw.
[f. whip n. or v. + saw n.]
1. A frame-saw with a narrow blade, used esp. for curved work.
1538Elyot, Runcina, a whypsawe, wherwith tymber is sawen. 1552in P. H. Hore Wexford (1901) 243 In the Storehouse at the Mynes..a whypp sawe. 1556Richmond Wills (Surtees) 100 In Maid's chamber..11 old wood chests and a whype sawe. 1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 107 Three whip-sawes, going all at once in a Frame or Pit. 1678Moxon 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. 1846Holtzapffel 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. 1903Nancy 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.
2. fig. Something that is disadvantageous in two ways. orig. and chiefly U.S.
1873Kansas Mag. Mar. 232/1 There was fifteen hundred on the turn—seven hundred and fifty on each side of it—and the run was tray, ace; a whipsaw. 1929L. F. Carr Amer. Challenged 79 The whip-saw of paying high prices for what they bought and being forced to receive low prices for what they sold. 1967Listener 23 Nov. 656/3 The wage push..and the rising interest rates..have together caught the American economy in a cruel and sharp whipsaw... The worst sort of inflation of costs and the worst sort of deflation of values. 1977Time 25 July 48/3 By the spring of 1974, the whipsaw effect of recession and rising costs—particularly for oil which fuels 80% of Con Ed's generating capacity—left the company strapped.
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’; also whip-sawing vbl. n. (lit. and fig.); whip-sawyer, a man who works a whip-saw.
1842Amer. Pioneer I. 83 Dwellinghouses, made of wood, whip-sawed into timbers, four inches thick, and of the requisite width and length. 1873Kansas Mag. June 497/1 On the next Budd whipsawed him, and that closed that deal. 1881Lumber World (U.S.) Mar., Some of the first saw mills built in England..were destroyed..on the ground that it would ruin the occupation of the whip sawyers. 1884Hartford (Conn.) Post Sept., Had Braddock been half as prudent as he was brave, he could..have whipsawed the French and Indians in that campaign. 1885Mag. Amer. Hist. May 496/1 Whip-sawing, the acceptance of fees or bribes from two opposing persons or parties. 1903Sun (N.Y.) 8 Nov. 10 The speculators have subjected themselves to the process known in Wall Street as whipsawing, that is, they have bought when the market was strong and sold when the market was weak, and found each time that they bought at the top and sold at the bottom. 1904Eliz. Robins Magnetic North ii. 26 He would..show us how to whip-saw. 1918R. Dollar Mem. vi. 63 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. 1930H. A. Innis Fur Trade in Canada ii. v. 140 Men were engaged in cutting, squaring, whipsawing, and hauling timber for the construction and repair of the forts. 1957Listener 12 Dec. 970/1 Mr [Adlai] Stevenson has been whip-sawed by conflicting advice. 1958F. G. Slaughter Daybreak iii. xiii. 176 The tendency to whipsaw all society into robots who work, think and eat alike is hardly an end product of intelligence. 1969D. Bagley Spoilers ii. 58 ‘Okay, so you've whipsawed me,’ said Follet sourly. 1975Weekend Mag. (Montreal) 12/1 Whip-sawing, industrial relations slang for the union practice of wringing a high settlement from a weak company and then using that settlement as a floor for bargaining with a big company, was rampant. 1976Billings (Montana) Gaz. 27 June 8-c/3 A major problem occurs when one small union negotiates a salary increase for its workers and all other state employes in the same job classification want the same increase. The effect is to ‘whipsaw’ the state between their competing demands. 1979C. E. Schorske Fin-de-Siècle Vienna vii. 351 Schoenberg whipsaws us upward out of the crepuscular calm. |