seesaw

Meanings

1. A structure composed of a plank, balanced in the middle, used as a game in which one person goes up as the other goes down.
2. A series of up-and-down movements.
3. A series of alternating movements or feelings.
4. An abnormal breathing pattern caused by airway obstruction, characterized by paradoxical chest and abdominal movement.
5. A tactic in which a piece repeatedly gains material, while simultaneously creating an inescapable series of alternating direct and discovered checks.

1. To use a seesaw.
2. To fluctuate.
3. To cause to move backward and forward in a seesaw fashion.

1. Fluctuating.

Etymology

Probably a frequentative imitative of rhythmic back-and-forth, up-and-down or zigzagging motion, such as teeter-totter, zigzag, flip-flop, ping pong, etc., under the umbrella term of reduplication; also likely influenced by the verbs see and saw of either present or past tense.

Translations