Word.ws English Dictionary

gnawed

gnawed is the simple past and past participle of gnaw.

Meaning of gnaw

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)

  1. (ambitransitive) To bite something persistently, especially something tough.
    • The dog gnawed the bone until it broke in two.
  2. (intransitive) 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 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

See all 4 meanings of gnaw

Adjective

gnawed (comparative more gnawed, superlative most gnawed)

  1. Synonym of erose.
    Synonyms:
    erose

Synonyms of gnawed

Forms of gnawed

comparativemore gnawed
superlativemost gnawed

Phrases with gnawed

Questions about gnawed

What does gnawed mean?
Gnawed means synonym of erose.
What is gnawed the simple past and past participle of?
Gnawed is the simple past and past participle of gnaw.
What part of speech is gnawed?
Gnawed is an adjective.

Words near gnawed in the dictionary

  1. gnaw
  2. gnaw someone's vitals
  3. Gnawa
  4. gnawable
  5. Gnawas
  6. gnawed
  7. gnawed someone's vitals
  8. gnawer
  9. gnawers
  10. gnawest
  11. gnaweth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gnawed (page history and authors); gnaw (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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Cite this entry: “gnawed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gnawed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.