Other forms: gnawing, gnawed, gnaws
To gnaw is to bite at something again and again. Gnaw a bone, gnawing at the wood, gnawed through it.
The repetition is the point — gnawing wears a thing down rather than breaking it — which is why rodents do it and why their teeth grow continuously to survive it. Figuratively a worry gnaws at you, slowly and without stopping. Note the silent g, which was pronounced in Old English.
1verbgnawTo bite at something again and again.
“The dog lay in the corner, gnawing a bone.”
2verbtroubleTo trouble somebody persistently.
“Doubts about the decision gnawed at him for weeks.”
gnaw is a repeated biting.
Old English gnagan is a Germanic verb, probably from a root imitating the sound. The g was once pronounced.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰnēgʰ- — to gnaw, scratch
Proto-Germanic
*gnaganą — to gnaw
Proto-West Germanic
*gnagan
Old English
gnagan
Middle English
gnawen
English, today
gnaw
From Middle English gnawen, gnaȝen, from Old English gnagan, from Proto-West Germanic gnagan, from Proto-Germanic gnaganą (“to gnaw”), probably from Proto-Indo-European gʰnēgʰ- (“to gnaw, scratch”). Cognate with Dutch knagen, German nagen, Danish gnave (“to gnaw”), Norwegian Bokmål gnage, Norwegian Nynorsk gnaga, Swedish gnaga.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sounds & Noises