buzzsaw — English Dictionary

buzzsaw

Noun

  1. A circular saw.

    Examples
    More examples (1)

    Agriculture Secretary Edward T. Schafer is preparing to walk into a buzzsaw of criticism over American biofuels policy when he meets with world leaders to discuss the global food crisis next week.

  2. Someone or something that makes a loud, harsh, grinding or rasping noise, like that of a circular saw.

    Usage
    • Slang
    Examples

    No danger of these buzzsaws waking up, it was enough to make you wish for impaired hearing.

    Anyway, buzzsaw hardcore from both bands with nice 'n' trebly production, and each have some Japanese influences in there.

    More examples (2)

    Nasal buzzsaws shook the sides of the tent as finally, they were all out for night.

    In the darkness, Benny listened to the sounds of the street: a far-off police siren, a dog's growl, a hip-hop pulse blaring from a car stereo, the buzzsaw whine of the El.

  3. The MG 42 general-purpose machine gun.

    Usage
    • Slang
    Examples
    More examples (2)

    Golden tracers from the jaggering MG42 buzzsaw lit up the air like glitter, and from both directions there were bee-hive-volumes of whizzes and snaps as bullets passed through the air, in some cases only feet from them.

    Suddenly, machine-gun rounds tore over their heads, stitching a neat row of holes in the wall above them, the weapon's unmistakable ripping report identifying it as a 'buzz saw', as the GIs had nicknamed the German MG42 because of its stupendous rate of fire.

    Cade braced its stock against his shoulder, sighted the moving shadows in the woods, and let the buzz saw chew into them.

    More examples (1)

    On Omaha Beach, the Panzer Army locked up the beachhead with eight concrete bunkers, with their buzzsaw MG-42 machine guns that fired 1,500 rounds per minute, aimed from 35 pillboxes with automatic artillery pieces of different sizes.

  4. A violently destructive attack.

    Usage
    • Slang
    Examples

    The changes ran into a buzzsaw of Congressional criticism.

    Downsizings attack managers like an emotional buzzsaw.

    More examples (4)

    Landry's martyrdom was automatic and mostly unavoidable -- although Jerry, bless his heart, went into his initial press conference at Valley Ranch and walked right into his second media buzzsaw.

    But aware of it or not, Johnson was heading into a buzzsaw.

    We knew that we were headed into a buzzsaw and some of us might not come back, a thought so absurd and so real that it was overwhelming.

    The old wood and plasterboard vaporized under the buzzsaw of .30 caliber bullets.

  5. One who attacks violently and/or mindlessly.

    Examples
    More examples (1)

    So he keeps away from the intellectual buzzsaws; and, as both philology and philosophy grow ever more and more technical, the gap between them, if anything, widens.

    Apparently the jay was unaware that the hawk no longer had its hold because it became a buzzsaw of blue fury, slashing the hawk several more times.

    More examples (1)

    Similarly , if mom or dad choose to do something other than play with the little feathered buzzsaws, as occasionally we humans do , the birds would have no choice but to "play" with whatever was handy: chairs, lamps, cabinets, pillows, or original Picasso... you get the idea.

    But the minute he arrived, he ran into a buzzsaw named Lee Iacocca.

    More examples (1)

    Perhaps it's habit, an ingrained autonomous component to feeding, a lingering artifact from when they were still alive, thinking creatures instead of walking buzzsaws.

Verb

  1. To cut with a circular saw.

    Usage
    • Transitive
  2. To spin rapidly like the blades of a circular saw.

    Usage
    • Colloquial
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    The 7.62 tumblers would buzzsaw through the flimsy protection offered by the float.

  3. To produce a loud, harsh noise like that of a circular saw.

    Usage
    • Transitive or intransitive
    • Colloquial
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    When the sun comes early through eastern windows and a single horsefly buzzsaws the air it is then I rise from bed my dreams of amputation, of teeth lost, cloaked in the amnesia of another day overwhelmed with trivia.

    A loud screeching sound buzzsaws the eerie silence of the day.

Word forms
buzzsawsbuzzsawsbuzzsawingbuzzsawedbuzzsawed

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