gnaw
UK/nɔː//nɔ/
gnaw verb: to bite something persistently, especially something tough.
Verb
gnaw (third-person singular simple present gnaws, present participle gnawing, simple past gnawed or (dialectal) gnew, past participle gnawed or (dialectal) gnew or (archaic) gnawn)
- To bite something persistently, especially something tough.
- The dog gnawed the bone until it broke in two.
- Ten thousand men that fishes gnaw'd uponc. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- To produce excessive anxiety or worry.
- Her comment gnawed at me all day and I couldn't think about anything else.
- 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: […]1637, Thomas Heywood, The Royall King, and the Loyall Subject. […], London: […] Nich[olas] and John Okes, for James Becket, […], →OCLC, Act III, signature E4, verso
Noun
gnaw (plural gnaws)
- The act of gnawing.
- give something a gnaw
- have a gnaw of a bone
gnaw meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
gnaw in Hindi
- to bite something persistently
- कुतरना kutarnā
gnaw in Tamil
- கடித்தல், பற்களை நெரித்தல், அறிதல், உணர்தல் மையம்
gnaw in Urdu
- کترنا
gnaw in Malayalam
- കാർന്നുതിന്നുക, കരളുക, കാരുക, ദ്രവിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- gnaw in Kannada
- ಅಗಿಯುತ್ತಿರು, ಕಡಿ, ಕುರುಕು, ಕೊರೆ
- gnaw in Punjabi
- ਚੂੰਡਣਾ cūṇḍṇā
- gnaw in Tagalog
- ngatngat
- gnaw in Arabic
- نَخَرَ naḵara, قَضَمَ qaḍama
- gnaw in Malay
- unggis, kerumit
- gnaw in Persian
- خاییدن xâyidan, خسیدن xasidan
- gnaw in Thai
- แทะ tɛ́
- gnaw in Vietnamese
- cắn, nhằn
- gnaw in Myanmar
- တွပ် twap
Examples of gnaw in a sentence
- I must have spent an hour gnawing on the chewy taffy.
- A mouse had gnawed a hole through the kickboard to nest inside the organ; she refused to use the pedals nearby.
- It looked like something an animal had dug up and gnawed on.
Forms of gnaw
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | gnaws |
| present participle | gnawing |
| past | gnawed |
| past participle | gnawed |
| past (dialectal) | gnew |
| past participle (dialectal) | gnew |
| past participle (archaic) | gnawn |
| Noun | |
| plural | gnaws |
Origin of gnaw
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.
Words formed from gnaw
Words that rhyme with gnaw
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about gnaw
- What does gnaw mean?
- Gnaw means to bite something persistently, especially something tough.
- What is gnaw in Hindi?
- Gnaw in Hindi is कुतरना (kutarnā). See Gnaw meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is gnaw?
- Gnaw can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce gnaw?
- Gnaw is pronounced /nɔː/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of gnaw?
- The past tense of gnaw is gnawed.
Words near gnaw in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gnaw (page history and authors); gnaw (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gnaw (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gnaw (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gnaw (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਚੂੰਡਣਾ (Punjabi) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-gnaw.ogg.
Cite this entry: “gnaw.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gnaw. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.