gnaw
Americanverb (used with object)
-
gnaws,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gnawed,
past
-
grawed,
past participle
-
gnawn,
past participle (Archaic)
-
gnawing
present participle
-
to bite or chew on, especially persistently.
-
to wear away or remove by persistent biting or nibbling.
-
to form or make by so doing.
to gnaw a hole through the wall.
-
to waste or wear away; corrode; erode.
-
to trouble or torment by constant annoyance, worry, etc.; vex; plague.
verb (used without object)
-
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.
-
to cause corrosion.
The acid gnaws at the metal.
-
to cause an effect resembling corrosion.
Her mistake gnawed at her conscience.
verb
-
to bite (at) or chew (upon) constantly so as to wear away little by little
-
(tr) to form by gnawing
to gnaw a hole
-
to cause erosion of (something)
-
to cause constant distress or anxiety (to)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
gnawernoun
-
outgnawverb (used with object)
-
undergnawverb (used with object)
-
gnawableadjective
-
gnawingadjective
-
ungnawedadjective
-
gnawinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
gnawsimple
-
gnawssimple
-
have gnawnperfect
-
have grawedperfect
-
has gnawnperfect
-
has grawedperfect
-
am gnawingprogressive
-
are gnawingprogressive
-
is gnawingprogressive
-
have been gnawingperfect progressive
-
has been gnawingperfect progressive
Past
-
gnawedsimple
-
had gnawnperfect
-
had grawedperfect
-
was gnawingprogressive
-
were gnawingprogressive
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Unit 1: Telling Details
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Where the Red Fern Grows
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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
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
And those spectacular surface catacombs and arches will collapse to leave extensive areas of submerged ice that will then rise up under their own buoyancy to gnaw away at the berg's edges.
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2024
Only this time, instead of letting the anxiety gnaw at her confidence, she accepted its presence, took a deep breath, and put on the kind of show that is hers and hers alone.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 22, 2023
Other boys and girls bent over their paper, writing, pausing to gnaw their pencils, writing again.
From "Ralph S. Mouse" by Beverly Cleary
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
The creature lifts its head, nearly dainty in scale, and contentedly gnaws a mouthful of ferns.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2024
He’s a good physical comedian, especially when he gnaws a breath mint like a bunny.
From New York Times ● Mar. 16, 2023
The parrot hops down to the desk, kicks around some of the mess, and when he finds no pen, he gnaws off a blue-green feather from his back.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
Locations included St Andrew's Retail Park where officers found gnawed products on sale, the council said.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Sponsor Nike has even started to dress him in nice clothes, though I’m not sure what to do with that macrame-style warm-up jacket, which looks like it spent a winter getting gnawed by moths.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
He frustratedly gnawed on a piece of gum as he trotted back to the dugout.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2025
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 had never before gnawed on anything but food.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
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
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
But the wolf has devoured my sow, Mine, mine, mine; My chickens are killed by the cats, My onions are gnawn by the rats; Good-bye to my dowry now.
From Basque Legends With an Essay on the Basque Language by Wentworth Webster
Notandum, A rat had gnawn my spur-leathers; notwithstanding, I put on new, and did go forth: but first I threw three beans over the threshold.
From Volpone; Or, the Fox by Ben Jonson
One thought lies close in her heart gnawn thorough With pain, a weed in a dried-up river, A rust-red share in an empty furrow.
From A Century of Roundels by Algernon Charles Swinburne
An' from bein' a puny cheel I grawed a bonny wan arter dipping.
From Lying Prophets 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' so you alias have, Polly, since you was a grawed gal; an' God knaws it.
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
“The childer—they grawed to love me that dear—also the men an’ women.
From Children of the Mist by Eden Phillpotts
Then comes the second wave: a low, gnawing horror at what you might have done.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
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
My own brain had been gnawing on that letter like a dog with a bone ever since that afternoon at the Academy.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
