gnaw /nɔː $ nɒː/
verb [intransitive, transitive always + adverb/preposition][
Language: Old English;
Origin: gnagan]
to keep biting something hard
Synonym : chew:
Dexter gnawed his pen thoughtfully. A rat had gnawed a hole in the box.gnaw at/on The puppy was gnawing on a bone.gnaw (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. [TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲
bite 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. [TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲