From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsaw at something phrasal verbCUTto cut something with a repeated backwards and forwards movement He sawed at the loaf with a blunt knife. → saw→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
saw at • He hated what he saw at Evanston.• I saw at first hand what a regressive prison regime does to prisoners.• We had come into the kitchen, and I saw at once that nothing was as I had left it.• Father Tim saw at once that the truest meaning of the term captive audience was being demonstrated right before his eyes.• Sorry as he was, he saw at once that to refuse would give the whole thing away.• I saw at that moment how much Adler had helped her.• Despite what you saw at the club.• Looking up he saw at the top of it a bizarre collection of wheels and cogs. 