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gnaw

[naw]

Example Sentences Origin

verb (used with object)

to bite or chew on, especially persistently.

to wear away or remove by persistent biting or nibbling.

to form or make by so doing: to gnaw a hole through the wall.

to waste or wear away; corrode; erode.

to trouble or torment by constant annoyance, worry, etc.; vex; plague.

verb (used without object)

to bite or chew persistently: The spaniel gnawed happily on a bone.

to cause corrosion: The acid gnaws at the metal.

to cause an effect resembling corrosion: Her mistake gnawed at her conscience.

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amusing in an odd way

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Origin:
before 1000; Middle English gnawen, Old English gnagen; cognate with German nagen, Old Norse gnāga

Related forms

gnaw·a·ble, adjective

gnaw·er, noun

out·gnaw, verb (used with object), -gnawed, -gnawed or -gnawn, -gnaw·ing.

un·der·gnaw, verb (used with object)

un·gnawed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To gnaw

Example Sentences

Here's a rhetorical question to gnaw on while calculating your brackets the next two weeks.

With any luck, your students' consciences will gnaw at them.

Instead they slowly gnaw away at their summer bounty throughout the winter.

EXPAND

Here's a rhetorical question to gnaw on while calculating your brackets the next two weeks.

With any luck, your students' consciences will gnaw at them.

Instead they slowly gnaw away at their summer bounty throughout the winter.

Do not leave bags of salt or leather items where animals can gnaw them.

They also gnaw on wires for sprinkler systems and traffic lights.

Rodents are especially problematic because they gnaw and jump.

Immigrant mothers gave them to babies to gnaw on, a kind of edible teething ring.

Great advocates intuit what will bother the witness and gnaw at it in their questions.

The forest floor is littered with branch tips that they gnaw off to clean their teeth.

And if you buy it with the bones in, you've got doll-house-sized spare ribs to gnaw on.

Play a little music, gnaw on some elk ribs and watch the girls dance.

These boards catch the mouse, but usually the animal panics and tries to gnaw off its own leg to escape.

The only way to get it any fresher is to go out in the field and gnaw it off the stalk.

Termites are a lot more than pasty white bugs that gnaw on dead plants and manage subterranean fungus farms.

Packs of dogs gnaw on the bodies of those who have died of cold and malnutrition.

The idea is to reduce traffic and the exhaust fumes that experts say gnaw at the city's monuments.

The scenes of prison and deadening manual labor gnaw at us as the cute and more numerous comic sequences do not.

No more throwing us a bone to gnaw on while they dine on arugula and stuffed goose.

Roosevelt had no ready answers, and it was not in his character to gnaw at.

They have piled up before them the green stalks known as khat, which they gnaw to a pulp for the feeling of euphoria it produces.

But every time she gives us some new little bone to gnaw on.

They are a pleasant accomplice to meaty spareribs that a child might gnaw for a quarter-hour.

The firehouse opened when horses pulled all the engines, and their gnaw marks still line the windowsills.

Paladino's digits bear the tell-tale shortness of nail that can be achieved only with a gnaw.

Rats bore into plastic bags effortlessly and can even gnaw through thick plastic trash can lids.

He would gnaw on it, worry about it, and inject it into every social interaction.

They're also known to snatch at dangling or glittering objects and to gnaw on sandals.

Thank you for giving us a story idea and something to gnaw on.

The downturn continues to gnaw away at states' budgets, a new report shows.

Some beat their wives and children the way a dog tries to gnaw at the hurt in its paw.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

gnaw (nɔː)

—vb (when intr, often foll by at or upon) (when intr, often foll by at) , gnaws, gnawing, gnawed, gnawed, gnawn
1.	to bite (at) or chew (upon) constantly so as to wear away little by little
2.	(tr) to form by gnawing: to gnaw a hole
3.	to cause erosion of (something)
4.	to cause constant distress or anxiety (to)

—n
5.	the act or an instance of gnawing

[Old English gnagan; related to Old Norse gnaga, Old High German gnagan]

'gnawable

—*adj*

'gnawer

—n

'gnawing

—*adj*, —n

'gnawingly

—*adv*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

gnaw

O.E. gnagan (pt. *gnog, pp. gnagan), a common Gmc. word (cf. O.S. gnagan, O.N. gnaga, M.Du. knagen, Ger. nagen), probably imitative of gnawing.

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Matching Quote

"We shall be reduced to gnaw the very crust of the earth for nutriment."

-Henry David Thoreau

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