Log in or Sign up

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To bite, chew on, or erode with the teeth.
  2. v. To produce by gnawing: gnaw a hole. See Synonyms at bite.
  3. v. To erode or diminish gradually as if by gnawing: waves gnawing the rocky shore.
  4. v. To afflict or worry persistently: fear that constantly gnawed me.
  5. v. To bite or chew persistently: The dog gnawed at the bone.
  6. v. To cause erosion or gradual diminishment.
  7. v. To cause persistent worry or pain: Hunger gnawed at the prisoners.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To bite off little by little; bite or scrape away with the front teeth; erode or eat into.
  2. To bite upon, as in close thought, vexation, rage, etc.
  3. To wear away as if by continued biting; consume; fret; waste.
  4. To act by or as if by continual biting away of small fragments or portions.
  5. To bite or nibble at the hook, as fish.
  6. n. A gnawing.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To bite something persistently.
  2. v. To produce excessive anxiety or worry.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To bite, as something hard or tough, which is not readily separated or crushed; to bite off little by little, with effort; to wear or eat away by scraping or continuous biting with the teeth; to nibble at.
  2. v. To bite in agony or rage.
  3. v. To corrode; to fret away; to waste.
  4. v. To trouble in a constant manner; to plague; to worry; to vex; -- usually used with at.
  5. v. To use the teeth in biting; to bite with repeated effort, as in eating or removing with the teeth something hard, unwieldy, or unmanageable.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. become ground down or deteriorate
  2. v. bite or chew on with the teeth

Etymologies

  1. Middle English gnauen, from Old English gnagan.

Examples

  • “_Bête Noire_, my _bête noire_, and so I called him, and as he is by no means averse to eating through his head rope when picketed, I find that the curtailment to "gnaw" is satisfactory enough as far as names go.”

    A Yeoman's Letters Third Edition

  • “[FN#244] The term is picturesque and true; we say "gnaw," which is not so good.”

    Arabian nights. English

  • “But in my case, the Oreos were likely to grow teeth and gnaw my fingers off.”

    Simon & Schuster: Brush of Darkness

  • “I was still young and slim and had many secrets to gnaw on.”

    Fictionaut: Tepid Everything

  • “Here, I can confess that I see sickness like a violent weed growing everywhere, in the rubbish bins that puff out ash clouds, in the dirty puddles that ooze in the streets, in the breath of the gin ladies who hang about the sidewalk, in the dead cats, the hungry mice that gnaw at the walls, when I go walking in the park and see packs of stray dogs making garbage of the city.”

    Simon & Schuster: Deadly

  • “When I make coffee the black tar on his teeth seems to gnaw at me.”

    The Tortilla Curtain (copy)

  • “But the story of Larry Freed 's ordeal with the property, now named the Sullivan Center, is the real-estate equivalent of the fox that had to gnaw off its leg to escape a trap.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Clinging to Chicago Hope

  • “Death Wish and Straw Dogs – misogynistic hits from that heyday of anti-feminist backlash, the early-70s – they endlessly gnaw and worry at issues of masculinity and impotence, with added penis-substitute artillery, and the purgative satisfactions deriving from orgasmic explosions of violence.”

    The Guardian: Colmbiana proves that Luc Besson has a type … women with big guns

  • “I don't know if you have a copy of that book but it's one of the few scraps that fans can gnaw at until they put out full reprints.”

    The Googlemeister Is In

  • “Today, more than two decades later, his star has dimmed a bit - as always happens in literary circles, a few vultures have flown in to gnaw away at his corpus - but when one considers that between 1977 and 1988 he published five books, and that these have been supplemented by four more posthumous ones as well as three biographies, he remains a formidable if enigmatic presence.”

    The Washington Post: "The Letters of Bruce Chatwin"

Show 10 more examples...

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘gnaw’.

Comments

No comments yet...

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

‘gnaw’ has been looked up 2075 times, loved by 1 person, added to 25 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 8.