Word.ws English Dictionary

begnaw

UK/bɪˈnɔː/US/bɪˈnɔ/

begnaw verb: to gnaw; to eat away at.

Verb

begnaw (third-person singular simple present begnaws, present participle begnawing, simple past begnawed, past participle begnawed or begnawn)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To gnaw; to eat away at.
    • The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • […] that man might see, / What worm begnaws — that vital core concealing / All its vile, consumptive bane, […]1832, Thomas Holley Chivers, The Path of Sorrow, Or, The Lament of Youth: A Poem, page 90

Forms of begnaw

third-person singular presentbegnaws
present participlebegnawing
pastbegnawed
past participlebegnawed
past participlebegnawn

Origin of begnaw

From Middle English *begnawen, from Old English begnagan (“to begnaw, gnaw all over”), equivalent to be- + gnaw.

Words that rhyme with begnaw

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about begnaw

What does begnaw mean?
Begnaw means to gnaw; to eat away at.
What part of speech is begnaw?
Begnaw is a verb.
How do you pronounce begnaw?
Begnaw is pronounced /bɪˈnɔː/ (UK).
What is the past tense of begnaw?
The past tense of begnaw is begnawed.

Words near begnaw in the dictionary

  1. beglued
  2. beglues
  3. begluing
  4. Begnaud
  5. Begnauds
  6. begnaw
  7. begnawed
  8. begnawing
  9. begnawn
  10. begnaws
  11. begnet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: begnaw (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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