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/nɔ/ Listen

verb

Gnaw v. t. (past gnawed; past part. gnawn; pres. part. gnawing)

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. "His bones clean picked; his very bones they gnaw."

To bite in agony or rage. "They gnawed their tongues for pain."

To corrode; to fret away; to waste.

To trouble in a constant manner; to plague; to worry; to vex; usually used with at; as, his mounting debts gnawed at him.

Gnaw v. i. (past gnawed; past part. gnawn; pres. part. gnawing) To use the teeth in biting; to bite with repeated effort, as in eating or removing with the teeth something hard, unwieldy, or unmanageable. "I might well, like the spaniel, gnaw upon the chain that ties me."

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Etymology of 'Gnaw'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Gnaw" Quotes from Famous Books

... know very little of the Bar-O entanglements and complications. It's an old story. Grandaddy knows all about it but he doesn't talk. There are few facts and many rumors. For three generations it's been a sort of a gnaw-bone, to be dug up and chewed on when there's nothing else. It's a musty old tradition, a sort of a remnant of the old days, that present day newsmongers use as a yardstick for comparisons. If a modern domestic complication breaks out, the current ...

— David Lannarck, Midget - An Adventure Story • George S. Harney

... dragged in with the flesh still on them, for all the bones are in their natural position. In other caves, the thorax and the vertebrae of the skeletons were missing; the cave-man, having despatched his victim, bad evidently taken only the more succulent parts into his retreat. Beasts of prey merely gnaw the comparatively tender and spongy tops of the bones, leaving the hard, compact parts untouched. In the caves that were inhabited by man, however, we find the apophyses neglected, whilst the diaphyses are split open. We cannot, therefore, make any mistake on this point, or ...

— Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples • The Marquis de Nadaillac

... d'Andreghen and his men that night, and in the tumult to steal Hugues away; whereafter, as Adhelmar pointed out, Hugues might readily take ship for England, and leave the marshal to blaspheme Fortune in Normandy, and the French King to gnaw at his chains in Bordeaux, while Hugues toasts his shins in comfort at London. Adhelmar admitted that the plan was a mad one, but added, reasonably enough, that needs must when the devil drives. And so firm ...

— The Line of Love - Dizain des Mariages • James Branch Cabell

... him emperor unless he makes himself," said Galen. "You will know tonight. We lack a hero, Sextus. All conspirators resemble rats that gnaw and run, until one rat at last discovers himself Caesar of the herd by accident. Caius Julius Caesar was a hero. He was one mind bold and above and aloof. He saw. He considered. He took. His murderers were all conspirators, who ran like rats and turned on one another. So are we! Can you imagine ...

— Caesar Dies • Talbot Mundy

... was more or less at home there. At any rate Elmer was pleased to see him sit up on his haunches and begin to gnaw at a stray ...

— Pathfinder - or, The Missing Tenderfoot • Alan Douglas

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