Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to talk incessantly, to chatter on.

1821–6

‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) x: He was never stuck at a word [...] but sawed away [...] steadily, smoothly, and saucily.

(orig. US) to snore loudly.

1859		N.O. Dly Crescent (LA) 8 Aug. 1/4: He was soon in the land of dreams, and began ‘sawing gourds’.
1862		Fayetteville Obs. (TN) 27 Mar. 2/1: There’s old Mullen Stork, he’s in our mess, and he saws gourds all night.
1870		F.H. Ludlow Heart of Continent 91: In five minutes [...] we were all ‘sawing gourds’ together in the land of Nod [DA].
1882		Dly Cairo Bulletin (IL) 1 Dec. 1/4: She was ‘sawing gourds’ like forty.
1893		Guthrie Dly Leader (OK) 14 Dec. 3/3: A man should not break himself of deep breathing in order to avoid ‘sawing gourds’.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Memento’ in Voice of the City (1915) 243: ‘Stop sawing gourds,’ says I, ‘and sit up and take notice.’.
1913		Fool-killer (Moravian Falls, NC) 1 Aug. 4/1: You ain’t more than got to sawing gourds right good till Mr Flea is back on the job.
1921		Fool-Killer (Boomer, NC) 1 Dec. 3/2: The old king got to sawing gourds right good that night.

1. (US) to stop talking, usu. as imper.

1902		S.E. White Blazed Trail 185: At this point the speaker was interrupted. ‘Saw off,’ ‘Shut up,’ ‘Give us a rest,’ growled the audience.
1944		in W.C. Fields By Himself (1974) 442: This letter sounds more like an interview so will saw off, sending you my love.

2. to berate; to reprimand; thus sawing-off n., a reprimand.

1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 372: Mr. Gregg, he gave me the hell of a sawing off afterwards.
1961		(con. early 1950s) J. Peacock Valhalla 202: He’s in there sawing them off.

to bore someone with extensive chatter on a particular topic.

1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 87: I finds him easy enough, an’ saws it off on him in Spanish how the game stacks up.
1931		O. Strange Law O’ The Lariat 37: Don’t start sawin’ off that damn dictionary stuff on me.

to snore.

1939		J. Worby Spiv’s Progress 12: I [...] got the grub while you’ve been sawing them off.
1946		D. Hill ‘Chalky’ in Lehmann Penguin New Writing No. 28 184: The deaf-mute was asleep and sawing them off horribly.

1. (US) to carry on as normal, to get on with one’s work, to keep to oneself [the mundane act of sawing wood].

1894		Congressional Record 24 Jan. 1347/2: Is it possible that the framers of the bill hold a grudge against the voters who ‘sawed wood’ last November? [DA].
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 206: They pulled themselves together and resumed Sawing Wood.
1926		B.Q. Morgan ‘Simile and Metaphor in Amer. Speech’ in AS I:5 272: Say nothing and saw wood.

2. (US, also saw logs, saw off logs, saw timber) to snore.

1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 30: We’d inspected Homer once, about eight o’clock, and found him still sawin’ wood, so we didn’t try to get him up.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 289: It took Uncle Jerry shakin’ on one side and me on the other to bring Jake back to life from his woodsawin’ act.
1922		M.E. Smith Adventures of a Boomer Op. 40: Red was laying on his back snoring [...] ‘Hey! Red,’ I hollers, ‘how much of that wood are you going to saw.’.
1947–53		W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 224: Couple of snores. One’s Jeffrey’s. But whose this other guy sawing off logs?
1953		F. Brown Madball (2019) 70: ‘[O]nce he’s sawing timber you can count on at least five or six hours before even a bombing raid would wake him up’.
1963		Dundes & Schonhorn ‘Kansas University Sl.: A New Generation’ in AS XXXVIII:3 174: Also noted once were: conk out, flake it, jump in the bag, point toe to heaven, and saw wood.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 187: Saw logs To sleep.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 182: Lieutenant Dinkle sawed wood in his bed.
1980		Eble Campus Sl. Spring 5: sawing logs – snoring.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 180: Do you snore, Les? [...] I saw up a few logs on the odd occasion.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] Les barely had time to [...] switch off the bedlamp before he was sawing wood.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2015		T. Pluck ‘Letters to Santa’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 80: [O]ne parent was fond of drinking jugs of Ernesto and Julio Gallo’s finest until she was sawing wood on the couch.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 23: Sottile has fallen asleep, and he’s sawing wood big time.