GNAW

erode, gnaw, gnaw at, eat at, wear away

(verb) become ground down or deteriorate; “Her confidence eroded”

gnaw

(verb) bite or chew on with the teeth; “gnaw an old cracker”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Verb

gnaw (third-person singular simple present gnaws, present participle gnawing, simple past (dialectal) gnew or gnawed, past participle (archaic) gnawn or gnawed)

(ambitransitive) To bite something persistently, especially something tough.

(intransitive) To produce excessive anxiety or worry.

To corrode; to fret away; to waste.

Anagrams

• Ngwa, Wang, gawn, gwan, wang

Source: Wiktionary

Gnaw, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gnawed; p. pr. & vb. n. Gnawing.] Etym: [OE. gnawen, AS. gnagan; akin to D. knagen, OHG. gnagan, nagan, G. nagen, Icel. & Sw. gnaga, Dan. gnave, nage. Cf. Nag to tease.]

1. To bite, as something hard or tough, which is not readily separated or crushed; to bite off little by little, with effort; to wear or eat away by scraping or continuous biting with the teeth; to nibble at. His bones clean picked; his very bones they gnaw. Dryden.

2. To bite in agony or rage. They gnawed their tongues for pain. Rev. xvi. 10.

3. To corrode; to fret away; to waste.

Gnaw, v. i.

Definition: To use the teeth in biting; to bite with repeated effort, as in eating or removing with the teethsomething hard, unwiedly, or unmanageable. I might well, like the spaniel, gnaw upon the chain that ties me. Sir P. Sidney.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition