gnaw
Americanverb (used with object)
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gnaws,
present (3rd person singular)
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gnawed,
past
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grawed,
past participle
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gnawn,
past participle (Archaic)
-
gnawing
present participle
-
to bite or chew on, especially persistently.
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to wear away or remove by persistent biting or nibbling.
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to form or make by so doing.
to gnaw a hole through the wall.
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to waste or wear away; corrode; erode.
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to trouble or torment by constant annoyance, worry, etc.; vex; plague.
verb (used without object)
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gnaws,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gnawed,
past
-
grawed,
past participle
-
gnawn,
past participle (Archaic)
-
gnawing
present participle
-
to bite or chew persistently.
The spaniel gnawed happily on a bone.
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to cause corrosion.
The acid gnaws at the metal.
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to cause an effect resembling corrosion.
Her mistake gnawed at her conscience.
verb
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to bite (at) or chew (upon) constantly so as to wear away little by little
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(tr) to form by gnawing
to gnaw a hole
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to cause erosion of (something)
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to cause constant distress or anxiety (to)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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gnawernoun
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outgnawverb (used with object)
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undergnawverb (used with object)
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gnawableadjective
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gnawingadjective
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ungnawedadjective
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gnawinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gnawsimple
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gnawssimple
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have gnawnperfect
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have grawedperfect
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has gnawnperfect
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has grawedperfect
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am gnawingprogressive
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are gnawingprogressive
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is gnawingprogressive
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have been gnawingperfect progressive
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has been gnawingperfect progressive
Past
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gnawedsimple
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had gnawnperfect
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had grawedperfect
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was gnawingprogressive
-
were gnawingprogressive
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had been gnawingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gnaw
before 1000; Middle English gnawen, Old English gnagen; cognate with German nagen, Old Norse gnāga
Explanation
To gnaw is to bite or chew. Your favorite food might be corn on the cob, because you love to gnaw along each row of kernels. To gnaw also means to deteriorate or wear away as if by gnawing with the teeth. In Arches National Park, the weather has gnawed away at the rocks creating beautiful formations like arches, bridges, and balanced rocks. In this sense, to gnaw can be used even more figuratively. Something might gnaw at the back of your mind — something you were supposed to do, although now you can't quite remember what it was.
Vocabulary lists containing gnaw
The Silent Treatment: Words Plagued by Silent Letters
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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Where the Red Fern Grows
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
What’s missing, and might well gnaw at a viewer, is whether regenerative farming can feed the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
They hadn’t forced a takeaway in three weeks, a drought that was beginning to gnaw at the players.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2024
While beetles gnaw away and burrow through the phloem under the trees' bark, the much smaller, flightless adelgid sucks out the trees' fluids and leaves behind a toxic saliva.
From Science Daily ● May 14, 2024
Then, unprompted, Kravchenko started to talk about his own future, a subject that must gnaw at so many minds after months spent in constant danger.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2024
I gnaw at my lip—she doesn’t get it, I can tell, so I keep going.
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
Artificial intelligence could be the boogeyman that gnaws at market share.
From Barron's ● Feb. 4, 2026
One man gnaws at a fleshless bone, clearly desperate for food.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2025
Yet there’s still something that gnaws at James, a player willing to grab ahold at whatever slight he can as he tries to stay motivated as his NBA career nears completion of a second decade.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2022
My generation — like the children and the families who survived the most recent fire — knows the fear that gnaws at us at night.
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2022
A bottomless chasm of insecurity and self-doubt that gnaws at them.
From "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" by Wes Moore
At the same time, concerns that gnawed at investors before the beginning of the war haven’t disappeared, either.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
He frustratedly gnawed on a piece of gum as he trotted back to the dugout.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2025
But like a million or so others in the UK, she succumbed to a disease that gnawed at her personality and cognition until it consumed her ability to function at all.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2024
When she was a vegan-curious teenager, it gnawed at her that giving up animal products could mean sacrificing sports.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2024
He was clumsy and tired and hungry enough that he would have gladly gnawed the leather off his boot.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
As he wrote, “the body of the charter has been unfortunately gnawn by rats” — a comment that carries grim symbolism today, as we take up the task the rats left unfinished.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2012
Nor could they find a bundle in a handkerchief, which they would have gnawn through speedily.
From The Open Air by Richard Jefferies
Thy pleasant gardens which were round about thee; ... the ravenous wolf hath gnawn at the roots, and the trees can yield thee no fruit.
From The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole
He has gnawn off all the best mouthfuls already.
From Jacques Bonneval by Anne Manning
Well, in attendance on my liege, your lord, I crossed the plain to its utmost margin, where The corse of Polyneices, gnawn and mauled, Was lying yet.
From Oedipus Trilogy by Francis Storr
Iss fay, I've grawed to b'lieve truly our Joan was saved, spite of all.
From Lying Prophets by Eden Phillpotts
But I be a grawed wummon now—an' yet caan't feel it so—not yet.
From Lying Prophets by Eden Phillpotts
Time was when we thought alike touching the bwoy; now we doan’t; ’cause your knowledge of un hasn’t grawed past the point wheer he downed us, an’ mine has.”
From Children of the Mist by Eden Phillpotts
He rambled in his speech a while; then went mute again, wi' a new look in his eyes as though he'd grawed so auld as history in a single night.
From Lying Prophets by Eden Phillpotts
An' from bein' a puny cheel I grawed a bonny wan arter dipping.
From Lying Prophets by Eden Phillpotts
Riffing on the human need for emotional engagement through the arts with such venom is not just a slap in the face; it’s evidence of Iñárritu’s gnawing insecurities.
From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026
For Lee, the sting of rejection gave way to a gnawing fear that she would end up struggling for money until she died.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Citrus greening disease is caused by a bacterial infection that is delivered by the gnawing of the Asian citrus psyllid.
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
Since our grief is less of a ready-made commodity lately, we can reorient it around ourselves, a little safer and more sovereign from the gnawing public gaze.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2026
“But his dæmon kept gnawing at her leg,” said Asta.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
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