whipsaw
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun:
- A two-person crosscut saw: A long saw with a handle at each end, designed to be used by two people pulling alternately, typically for cutting logs.
Verb:
- To cut with a whipsaw: To use a whipsaw to cut wood.
- To victimize, especially in gambling or negotiations: To subject someone to a double loss or a situation where they are disadvantaged from two sides at once, often through rapid, conflicting movements or pressures.
Usage Examples
Noun:
- The lumberjacks used a whipsaw to fell the large pine tree.
- An antique whipsaw hung on the wall of the old workshop.
Verb (literal meaning):
- They carefully whipsawed the timber into planks.
Verb (figurative meaning):
- Investors were whipsawed by the volatile market, buying high and then being forced to sell low.
- The negotiator felt whipsawed between the two opposing factions, each making contradictory demands.
Advanced Usage
- Financial/Trading Context: Commonly used to describe a situation in markets where an asset's price moves violently in one direction and then quickly reverses, causing losses for traders on both sides of the move.
- The stock whipsawed traders all day, triggering stop-loss orders on both the long and short sides.
Variants and Related Words
- Whipsawed (adj./verb, past tense): The state of having been subjected to a whipsaw effect.
- The whipsawed currency left importers and exporters struggling to price goods.
Synonyms
- Noun: Two-man saw, crosscut saw, pit saw.
- Verb (figurative): Double-cross, cheat, swindle, manipulate, buffet.
Related Idioms/Phrases
- Caught in a whipsaw: To be trapped in a situation where one is being pulled in two opposing, damaging directions.
- The small country was caught in a whipsaw between the economic demands of two superpowers.
Noun
- a saw with handles at both ends; intended for use by two people
Verb
- saw with a whipsaw
- victimize, especially in gambling or negotiations