whipsaw

whipsaw noun: a rip saw often operated by two people.

Noun

whipsaw (plural whipsaws)

whipsaw (third-person singular simple present whipsaws, present participle whipsawing, simple past whipsawed, past participle whipsawn)

To operate a whipsaw.
(transitive) To cause (a trader) to lose potential profit by buying shares just before the price falls, or by selling them just before the price rises.
(transitive) To defeat someone in two different ways at once.
- Whipsawed by events and facing another midterm electoral defeat, President Obama has directed his team to forge a policy agenda to regain momentum for his final two years in office even as some advisers urge that he rethink the way he governs.2014 November 1, Peter Baker, Michael D. Shear, “Braced for a shift in Congress, Obama is setting a new agenda [print version: Obama plots a route for compromise after election, International New...
Of a trade union: to coerce employers into capitulating by bringing them the news that other (more easily convinced) employers have already done so.
(US) To accept bribes from multiple parties at once, with the intent of letting down one or more of them.

whipsaw (not comparable)

Having the characteristic of arguing two sides at once.
- During the Porter crisis, Kelly found himself under intense scrutiny for the veracity of his whipsaw statements. He publicly praised Porter and privately urged him to stay.2018, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Philip Rucker, “When you lose that power’: How John Kelly faded as White House disciplinarian”, in Washington Post

நிலைப்பற்ற சந்தைநிலை

Noun
plural	whipsaws
Verb
third-person singular present	whipsaws
present participle	whipsawing
past	whipsawed
past participle	whipsawn

From whip + saw.

What does whipsaw mean?: Whipsaw means a rip saw often operated by two people.
What is whipsaw in Tamil?: Whipsaw in Tamil is நிலைப்பற்ற சந்தைநிலை. See Whipsaw meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is whipsaw?: Whipsaw can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
What is the plural of whipsaw?: The plural of whipsaw is whipsaws.

Adapted from Wiktionary: whipsaw (page history and authors); whipsaw (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-whipsaw.oga.

Cite this entry: “whipsaw.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whipsaw. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.