Gnaw
[nɔː] or [nɔ]
Definition
(verb.) bite or chew on with the teeth; 'gnaw an old cracker'.
Typed by Jaime--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) To bite in agony or rage.
(v. t.) To corrode; to fret away; to waste.
(v. i.) To use the teeth in biting; to bite with repeated effort, as in eating or removing with the teethsomething hard, unwiedly, or unmanageable.
Checked by Emil
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Bite, nibble, champ, nibble at, keep biting.[2]. Corrode, eat away, wear away.
Checker: Osbert
Definition
v.t. to bite so as to make a noise with the teeth: to bite off by degrees: to corrode or wear away: to bite in agony or rage: (fig.) to torment.—v.i. to use the teeth in biting.—n. Gnaw′er a rodent.
Typist: Shelley
Examples
- Mention that, if you please, to your companions, and never gnaw at the bars of your cage again as long as you live. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- I'd be willing to live in the swamps, and gnaw the bark from trees. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Rats were hunted eagerly; cowhide was gnawed and sawdust devoured to stay the pangs of hunger. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- But the idea of Beaufort gnawed him. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- Usually he was ashy and wretched, with all the life gnawed out of him. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Still she was gnawed as by a neuralgia, tormented by his potential absence from her. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- The mice have gnawed at it, and sharper teeth than teeth of mice have gnawed at me. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- But the rough wall of wax has in every case to be finished off, by being largely gnawed away on both sides. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- I only know the result was as if I had gnawed a file to satisfy hunger, or drank brine to quench thirSt. My hour of torment was the post-hour. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Jealousy had got hold of him: she stung him; but the sting was salutary: it gave him respite from the gnawing fang of melancholy. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- But he avoided her look, she sank her head in torment and shame, the gnawing at her heart going on. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Here was a little piece of miserable, gnawing confirmation. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- She gnaws her chain; I see the white teeth working at the steel! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- If you knew the harassing anxiety that gnaws and wears me when I am wandering in those places--where are those endless places, Mortimer? Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
Typed by Elinor