saw off
v. phr.— «Saw-off. To stop. Also to interupt, silence. “When we get this done, we’ll saw off for the day.” Noted in Tennessee but nowhere else. The expression likely is derived from the sense of completion that comes to sawyers when the cut drops from the log they are working on. Heard in the woods, among timber workers. “I sawed him off with an answer that he won’t forget for some time.” General.» —by Harry Harrison Kroll in George Peabody College for Teachers A Comparative Study of Upper and Lower Southern Folk Speech (Martin, Tennesee) Aug., 1925. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
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