gnaw
part of speech
verb (gnaw, gnaws, gnawed, gnawing); usually «gnaw at», «gnaw on», «gnaw through»
meaning for a pupil
1) To gnaw means to bite or chew something again and again, especially something hard, like a dog with a bone or a mouse with wood. tree →
2) If a worry or a feeling gnaws at you, it keeps bothering you for a long time. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons, rodents (rats, mice, beavers, squirrels) gnaw because their front teeth never stop growing; gnawing wears them down. Beavers gnaw through trees to build dams. In stories, «a gnawing hunger» or «doubt gnawed at her» shows a feeling that will not go away. Phrases: «gnaw on a bone», «gnaw through», «gnaw at someone», «gnawing hunger».
examples
- The dog gnawed on a bone under the table. tree →
- Mice gnawed through the bag of rice. tree →
- Beavers gnaw trees down to build dams. tree →
- A rabbit needs things to gnaw so its teeth don't grow too long. tree →
- Guilt gnawed at Sam after he broke the window. tree →
- He felt a gnawing hunger on the long walk. tree →
- Don't gnaw your pencil! tree →
- The witch returned and began gnawing the oak again. tree →
note
Silent g: say «naw» (rhymes with «saw»). Regular verb: gnawed. Other words with silent g: gnome, gnat, gnu, sign. Trap: «gnaw» is not «knaw» or «nor».
In the corpora
- In Aesop's fable from ancient Greece, about 2500 years ago, a little mouse saves a lion by gnawing through a net.
- Squirrels are rodents whose front teeth grow all the time, about fifteen centimetres a year, and gnawing hard nuts wears them down.
- The word rodent comes from the Latin rodere, to gnaw.
- Cave hyenas cracked bones with powerful jaws and dragged them to their dens, which scientists find by gnawed bones and fossil droppings.
- They are gaunt with want and famine; they gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «gnaw» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.