Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In botany, irregularly toothed, as if from gnawing; erose.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of gnaw.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Coleridge, "With blood was it planted; it was rocked in tempests; the goat, the ass, and the stag gnawed it, the wild boar whetted its tusk upon its bark; the deep scars are still extant on its trunk, and the path of the lightning may be traced among its higher branches!"

    The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 Various

  • (Asked on NBC after the race if that streak had "gnawed" at him, Pletcher answered, "not as much as everybody else who made a big deal out of it" — but by then we'd been hooked on his saga.)

    Kentucky Derby show has winners across board 2010

  • Bobby had tremendous emotional pull with the public, and that must have gnawed at Johnson, too.

    The Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010

  • Bobby had tremendous emotional pull with the public, and that must have gnawed at Johnson, too.

    The Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010

  • Bobby had tremendous emotional pull with the public, and that must have gnawed at Johnson, too.

    The Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010

  • I sat on the soft hill, looking at the hard cantilevered beams Theo had drawn and specified so carefully, which now had a chunk missing on either side, a gnawed V that looked too deep to have been carved by a bird.

    The Bird House Kelly Simmons 2011

  • The sense of unfulfilled belonging, the notion that my links with Wales were fraudulently weak, gnawed away at me for years until I felt an urge stealing up on me to put some flesh on my feelings about Wales, to solidify my Welshness in words and deeds.

    My quest to be more Welsh 2011

  • Walmart's advance on market share, and hence its now overly-ballyhooed raise for working class consumers, is also being gnawed at by newer and even lower end merchandisers in every segment.

    Jerry Hausman on Wal-Mart, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • But the sexist implication of his comment gnawed at me.

    Vivian Diller, Ph.D.: Retiring Athletes and Aging Beauty Queens: Shared Destinies? Ph.D. Vivian Diller 2010

  • I sat on the soft hill, looking at the hard cantilevered beams Theo had drawn and specified so carefully, which now had a chunk missing on either side, a gnawed V that looked too deep to have been carved by a bird.

    The Bird House Kelly Simmons 2011

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