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gnaw

verb
/nɔː/UK/nɔ/US/nɑ/

Etymology

From Middle English gnawen, gnaȝen, from Old English gnagan, from Proto-West Germanic *gnagan, from Proto-Germanic *gnaganą (“to gnaw”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *gʰnēgʰ- (“to gnaw, scratch”). Cognate with Dutch knagen, German nagen, Danish gnave (“to gnaw”), Norwegian Bokmål gnage, Norwegian Nynorsk gnaga, Swedish gnaga.

  1. derived from *gʰnēgʰ-✻ — “to gnaw, scratch”
  2. inherited from *gnaganą✻ — “to gnaw”
  3. inherited from *gnagan✻
  4. inherited from gnagan
  5. inherited from gnawen

Definitions

  1. To bite something persistently, especially something tough.

    • The dog gnawed the bone until it broke in two.
    • Ten thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon

  2. To produce excessive anxiety or worry.

    • Her comment gnawed at me all day and I couldn't think about anything else.

  3. To corrode

    To corrode; to fret away; to waste.

    • VVots thou vvho's returnd, / The unthrift Bonvile, ragged as a ſcarre-crovv / The VVarres have gnavv'd his garments to the skinne: […]
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. The act of gnawing.

      • have a gnaw of a bone

The neighborhood

Derived

begnaw, forgnaw, gnawable, gnawer, gnawingly, gnaw someone's vitals, outgnaw, ungnawed, ungnawn

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for gnaw. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA