gnawgnaw /nɔː $ nɒː/ verb [intransitive, transitive always + adverb/preposition] 
Word Origin Examples
Dexter gnawed his pen thoughtfully. A rat had gnawed a hole in the box.gnaw at/on The puppy was gnawing on a bone.► see thesaurus at bitegnaw (away) at somebody/something phrasal verb to make someone feel worried or frightened, over a period of time: Something was gnawing at the back of his mind. Doubt was gnawing away at her confidence.
Word OriginWORD ORIGINgnaw
Verb TableOrigin:
Old English gnaganVERB TABLE
gnaw
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | gnaw |
| he, she, it | gnaws | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | gnawed |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have gnawed |
| he, she, it | has gnawed | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had gnawed |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will gnaw |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have gnawed |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am gnawing |
| he, she, it | is gnawing | |
| you, we, they | are gnawing | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was gnawing |
| you, we, they | were gnawing | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been gnawing |
| he, she, it | has been gnawing | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been gnawing |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be gnawing |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been gnawing |
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
Thesaurus- A rat's teeth are strong enough to gnaw through lead pipes.
- The cat began to gnaw at the skin of the dead snake.
- The dog lay in the yard and gnawed its bone.
- Deep in the interstices of daily life, no doubt, frustrations gnawed at him and resentments festered.
- He had a wound on his thumb, which he gnawed as he looked worriedly around the car.
- If hungry he'd gnaw your ankle just to let you know to fill his bowl.
- It was too big a puzzle and she let it go although it gnawed away at the back of her mind.
- Terry saw other apes biting themselves and each other and gnawing at the bars, all classic signs of distress.
- We discovered this when the power company discovered that the pole had been so deeply gnawed that it became unsafe.
THESAURUS► bite
Collocations to use your teeth to cut, crush, or chew something: · The dog bit me!· I sometimes bite my fingernails when I’m nervous.· He bit into the apple.
► chew to keep biting something that is in your mouth: · Helen was chewing a piece of gum.· He was chewing on a cigar.
► gnaw if an animal gnaws something, it bites it repeatedly: · The dog was in the yard gnawing on a bone.
► nip somebody/give somebody a nip to give someone or something a small sharp bite: · When I took the hamster out of his cage, he nipped me.
► nibble to take a lot of small bites from something: · A fish nibbled at the bait.· She sat at her desk, nibbling her sandwich.
► sink your teeth into somebody/something to bite someone or something with a lot of force, so that your teeth go right into them: · The dog sank its teeth into my leg.· He sank his teeth into the steak.
► chomp on something informal to bite something and chew it in a noisy way: · The donkey was chomping on a carrot.· He was chomping away on big slice of toast.
► sting if an insect stings you, it makes a very small hole in your skin. You use sting about bees, wasps, and scorpions, and bite about mosquitoes, ants, spiders, and snakes: · She stepped on a wasps’ nest and must have been stung at least 20 times.
Longman Language Activatorto bite something several times, especially food► chew to keep biting something that is in your mouth: · Chew your food. Don't eat so quickly.· Helen sat there, chewing a piece of gum.chew on: · I gave the baby my key ring to chew on.
► gnaw if an animal gnaws something, it bites it repeatedly in order to eat it or destroy it: · The dog lay in the yard and gnawed its bone.gnaw at: · The cat began to gnaw at the skin of the dead snake.gnaw through: · A rat's teeth are strong enough to gnaw through lead pipes.
► peck if a bird pecks something, it makes quick repeated movements with its beak to try to bite it: · There was a red mark where the pigeon had pecked her hand.· The woodpecker's long beak is specially designed for pecking.peck at: · Hens pecked at the corn scattered on the ground.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB► away
to keep biting something hard SYN chew: · Repeated failure had lowered the club's reputation in the eyes of opponents and had gnawed away at membership numbers.· The reality of reengineering has begun to gnaw away at those who had earnestly embraced this newest form of management self-improvement.· It was too big a puzzle and she let it go although it gnawed away at the back of her mind.· Her mind gnawed away at the questions.· For this, in turn, gnawed away at her mind, then she began to deteriorate in body too.· Emmie imagined the beetles busy in the roof, gnawing away at the rafters.· Maybe you choose to seethe silently about something, letting it gnaw away at you.· The monotony, boredom and endless waiting gnawed away at the author.
► on· Even low-sugar rusks can contain up to 15 percent sugar so give crusts of toast or a scrubbed carrot to gnaw on instead.
NOUN► bone· They do not, however, collect bone, and they mostly gnaw larger pieces of bone rather than small mammal bone.· Gentle gnawing on the tiny bones appeals to our most basic, primordial instincts.· The cross-eyed com-poser was once again gnawing on a chicken bone, with a noodle dangling from his black beard.
Dexter gnawed his pen thoughtfully. A rat had gnawed a hole in the box.gnaw at/on The puppy was gnawing on a bone.► see thesaurus at bitegnaw (away) at somebody/something phrasal verb to make someone feel worried or frightened, over a period of time: Something was gnawing at the back of his mind. Doubt was gnawing away at her confidence.