jigsaw puzzle
18
2.2
- noun
- /ˈdʒɪgˌsɔː ˈpʌzl/
:
rompecabezas
- Putting the pieces together was like assembling a jigsaw puzzle cut out of granite.
- jigsaw puzzle pieces
- complete the jigsaw puzzle
- three jigsaw puzzles
And what you could see is that this jigsaw puzzle can only be assembled in this way.
- And what you could see is that this jigsaw puzzle can only be assembled in this way.
- That was a big puzzle piece that he dropped into that jigsaw puzzle, right?
- Is it, I'm going to do this table for jigsaw puzzles anyway, Why don't I just film it?
Examples
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You're always good at jigsaw puzzles.
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The children were then administered the three jigsaw puzzles in succession.
Academic text (1996) -
Every piece of the jigsaw puzzle is now on board.
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I did a jigsaw puzzle.
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The children ran to the side porch, where they knew they would find a jigsaw puzzle.
Fiction book (1999) -
I can do a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle, which is a considerable thing to do.
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They're pretty neat, the jigsaw puzzles and such.
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Afternoons, you spend at the card table putting together a jigsaw puzzle of Niagara Falls.
Fiction book (1992) -
Aliya's teacher can give the analogy of taking individual pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to create a larger, more meaningful picture.
Academic text (2014) -
The children gathered around the table to work on a colorful jigsaw puzzle together.
Synonyms
23
2.4
A puzzle made of many small irregular pieces that fit together to form a picture
How Hard
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from the constituents: 'jigsaw' denotes a picture cut into interlocking pieces and 'puzzle' denotes a problem or game, so together they describe a puzzle made of interlocking pieces. This simple noun–noun compositional pattern is transparent and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
Jigsaw puzzle comes from old woodworkers who used a small saw called a jigsaw to cut pictures into many small pieces, and the word puzzle meant something to 'put together'. So today jigsaw puzzle means a picture cut into pieces that you 'fit together' to make the whole image.