Word.ws English Dictionary

gnawn

gnawn is the 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

Synonyms of gnawn

Words formed from gnawn

Questions about gnawn

What is gnawn the past participle of?
Gnawn is the past participle of gnaw.

Words near gnawn in the dictionary

  1. gnaweth
  2. gnawing
  3. gnawing someone's vitals
  4. gnawingly
  5. gnawings
  6. gnawn
  7. gnawproof
  8. gnaws
  9. gnaws someone's vitals
  10. gnc
  11. GND

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gnawn (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: “gnawn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gnawn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.