SAWDUST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sawdust mean? 

• SAWDUST (noun)
  The noun SAWDUST has 1 sense:

1. fine particles of wood made by sawing wood

  Familiarity information: SAWDUST used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SAWDUST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fine particles of wood made by sawing wood

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("sawdust" is a kind of...):

wood (the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees)

 Context examples 

As you say, there appear to be grains of sawdust in it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then, going to a chest of drawers, he took out a pretty heart, made entirely of silk and stuffed with sawdust.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

The researchers created filter ‘bricks’ from sandy soil, charcoal, sawdust and iron scraps, and packed these into the barrels with gravel.

(Soil-based filter bricks clean up water for Moroccan farmers, SciDev.Net)

You may be exposed to arsenic by: • Taking in small amounts in food, water or air • Breathing sawdust or burning smoke from arsenic-treated wood • Living in an area with high levels of arsenic in rock • Working in a job where arsenic is made or used

(Arsenic, Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry)

Not only this, but on the table I found a small ball of black dough or clay, with specks of something which looks like sawdust in it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I may add that I walked out to the athletic grounds this morning, saw that tenacious black clay is used in the jumping-pit and carried away a specimen of it, together with some of the fine tan or sawdust which is strewn over it to prevent the athlete from slipping.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

With an effort I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter. The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned "character" leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)