gnaw
Example Sentences
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What’s missing, and might well gnaw at a viewer, is whether regenerative farming can feed the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
While beetles gnaw away and burrow through the phloem under the trees' bark, the much smaller, flightless adelgid sucks out the trees' fluids and leaves behind a toxic saliva.
From Science Daily ● May 14, 2024
The zoo said: "During the count, Crispin and Zac, the Zoo's two boisterous Sumatran tiger cubs, quickly turned the register in their enclosure into a toy, dragging it away to gnaw on."
From BBC ● Jan. 3, 2024
Only this time, instead of letting the anxiety gnaw at her confidence, she accepted its presence, took a deep breath, and put on the kind of show that is hers and hers alone.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 22, 2023
They did this so they could gnaw through the floor from below.
From "Sounder" by William H. Armstrong
Artificial intelligence could be the boogeyman that gnaws at market share.
From Barron's ● Feb. 4, 2026
One man gnaws at a fleshless bone, clearly desperate for food.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2025
The creature lifts its head, nearly dainty in scale, and contentedly gnaws a mouthful of ferns.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2024
My generation — like the children and the families who survived the most recent fire — knows the fear that gnaws at us at night.
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2022
The sister gnaws on a fingernail and nods.
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
At the same time, concerns that gnawed at investors before the beginning of the war haven’t disappeared, either.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
Trees have been gnawed and felled and the water levels are much higher than when we visited previously.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2024
When she was a vegan-curious teenager, it gnawed at her that giving up animal products could mean sacrificing sports.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2024
She introduced herself and asked him the questions that had gnawed at her for years: Was there a second snake?
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2024
“This one has been scraped and gnawed at,” he said.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
As he wrote, “the body of the charter has been unfortunately gnawn by rats” — a comment that carries grim symbolism today, as we take up the task the rats left unfinished.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2012
Thy pleasant gardens which were round about thee;…the ravenous wolf hath gnawn at the roots, and the trees can yield thee no fruit.
From Chronicle of the Cid by Robert Southey
Neither shrink thou at the gnawn tables that await thee; the fates will find a way, and Apollo aid thy call.
From The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil
This ruddy giant was secretly gnawn by misanthropy and disgust of life.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 4 "Finland" to "Fleury, Andre" by Various
I was so confoundedly numbed and gnawn, between cold and hunger, that I don't think I could have remembered my father, I don't, faith! before I had recruited.
From The Wanderer (Volume 1 of 5) or, Female Difficulties by Fanny Burney
But I be a grawed wummon now—an' yet caan't feel it so—not yet.
From Lying Prophets by Eden Phillpotts
“The childer—they grawed to love me that dear—also the men an’ women.
From Children of the Mist by Eden Phillpotts
Time was when we thought alike touching the bwoy; now we doan’t; ’cause your knowledge of un hasn’t grawed past the point wheer he downed us, an’ mine has.”
From Children of the Mist by Eden Phillpotts
I lay that’s why your darter’s cried o’ nights, then, an’ Chris have grawed sad an’ wisht in her ways, an’ mother have pet the bwoy wan moment an’ been short wi’ un the next.”
From Children of the Mist by Eden Phillpotts
"It hurted my arm 'tween the shoulder an' elbow a lil bit at first, but I've grawed used to it now."
From Lying Prophets by Eden Phillpotts
But now it seems that a very contemporary and more personal issue could be gnawing at Timesfolk and driving them to the brink of paranoia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
But that teaches another more cautionary lesson about collecting nemeses: Salieri never figured out how to channel his gnawing envy into motivation.
From Salon ● May 16, 2026
Citrus greening disease is caused by a bacterial infection that is delivered by the gnawing of the Asian citrus psyllid.
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
Healthcare, housing, car payments, groceries and energy bills are the costs really gnawing at wallets, according to an analysis from the trade organization.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 19, 2026
Today, though, the gnawing sense that I’ve made a horrible mistake has taken over my entire body.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Vocabulary lists containing gnaw
The Silent Treatment: Words Plagued by Silent Letters
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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Where the Red Fern Grows
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