gnaw
English
Etymology
From Middle English gnawen, gnaȝen, from Old English gnagan, from Proto-Germanic *gnaganą. Cognate with Dutch knagen, German nagen, Swedish gnaga. Probably from Proto-Indo-European *gʰnēgʰ- (“to gnaw, scratch”)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /nɔː/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔː
- Homophone: nor (in non-rhotic accent)
Verb
gnaw (third-person singular simple present gnaws, present participle gnawing, simple past gnawed or (dialectal) gnew, past participle gnawed or (archaic) gnawn)
- (transitive, intransitive) To bite something persistently, especially something tough.
- The dog gnawed the bone until it broke in two.
- (intransitive) To produce excessive anxiety or worry.
- Her comment gnawed at me all day and I couldn't think about anything else.
- To corrode; to fret away; to waste.
Derived terms
Translations
to bite something persistently
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Anagrams
Middle Welsh
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɡnau̯/
Noun
gnaw
- Soft mutation of knaw.
Mutation
| Middle Welsh mutation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Radical | Soft | Nasal | Aspirate |
| knaw | gnaw | knaw / chnaw pronounced with /ŋ̥-/ | chnaw |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | |||
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