What does gnaw mean in English?

You can learn gnaw Pronunciation, Grammar & Synonyms in this most authoritative English Dictionary.

gnaw Meaning, Definition, Pronunciation, Grammar & Synonyms❤️

0 to bite or chew something repeatedly, usually making a hole in it or gradually destroying it:
- Babies like to gnaw hard objects when they're teething.
- A dog lay under the table, gnawing on a bone.
1 to make you feel worried or uncomfortable:
- I've been gnawed by guilt about not replying to her letter yet.
- The feeling that I've forgotten something has been gnawing at me all day.
2 to bite or chew something repeatedly:
- [ I ] The cat began to gnaw at the towel beneath him.
3 to cause someone to feel continual anxiety or pain

Gnawing anxiety as to the future is one of the most soul-destroying things man can suffer from.
The black economy also gnaws away at the public purse.
What gnaws away at people's lives, however, is the incessant, everyday crime and what they consider to be crime.
They have gnawed away the concessions given to pensioners.
One can see marks on the furniture where the rats have gnawed.
Nothing gnaws away at a business man's sense of well-being than cashflow problems.
The burden becomes too heavy for them, and too many old people are left to loneliness which creeps on them and gnaws at the little strength which they have left.
Their case is founded on false assumptions and their arguments are riddled with muddle and confusion—rather like a lump of old timber gnawed away by woodworm and covered with fungus.