the.com/crosscut
the deliberate slice against the grain, where teeth meet wood at war and win
means To cut across something rather than along its length, or a cut, path, or saw made in that crosswise direction (especially a saw whose teeth are shaped to sever wood fibers across the grain).
from A plain English compound, stitched from "cross" and "cut." "Cross" came through Old English from Latin "crux" (the stake or cross), carrying the sense of "athwart, transverse — lying at angles." "Cut" is older and murkier, a late Old English/early Middle English word possibly of Scandinavian roots. Bolt them together and you get exactly what it says: a cut made across. The film-editing sense — cutting back and forth between two scenes — is a 20th-century borrowing of the same crosswise logic onto celluloid.
- saw teeth
- Crosscut saws cut on push and pull strokes
- film term
- Crosscutting intercuts two scenes to build suspense
- timber giants
- Two-man crosscut saws felled trees before chainsaws existed
- wood grain
- Cuts perpendicular to fibers, rougher than ripping along them
crosscut saw — hand saw with teeth designed to cut across wood grain, standard woodworking tool since 1800s
crosscut trail — hiking path that intersects longer trails, example: crosscut trail in mount rainier national park