see-saw

noun

1. a recreation in which two children alternately ride up and down while seated at opposite ends of a plank balanced at the middle.
2. a plank or apparatus for this recreation.
3. an up-and-down or a back-and-forth movement or procedure.
4. Whist. a crossruff.

adjective

5. moving up and down, back and forth, or alternately ahead and behind: It was a seesaw game with the lead changing hands many times.

verb (used without object)

6. to move in a seesaw manner: The boat seesawed in the heavy sea.
7. to ride or play on a seesaw.
8. to keep changing one’s decision, opinion, or attitude; vacillate.

verb (used with object)

9. to cause to move in a seesaw manner.

noun

1. a plank balanced in the middle so that two people seated on the ends can ride up and down by pushing on the ground with their feet
2. the pastime of riding up and down on a seesaw
3. 1. an up-and-down or back-and-forth movement
   2. (as modifier)a seesaw movement

verb

4. (intr) to move up and down or back and forth in such a manner; oscillate

n.also seesaw, 1630s, in see-saw-sacke a downe (like a Sawyer), words in a rhythmic jingle used by children and repetitive motion workers, probably imitative of the rhythmic back-and-forth motion of sawyers working a two-man saw over wood or stone (see saw. Ha ha.). Reference to a game of going up and down on a balanced plank is recorded from 1704; figurative sense is from 1714. Applied from 1824 to the plank arranged for the game. v.also seesaw, “move up and down,” 1712, from see-saw (n.). Related: See-sawed; see-sawing.