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
Outside, beavers gnaw at the vegetation around the chilly waters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2024
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
Then, unprompted, Kravchenko started to talk about his own future, a subject that must gnaw at so many minds after months spent in constant danger.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2024
Rats will gnaw at the hide if they are let.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Artificial intelligence could be the boogeyman that gnaws at market share.
From Barron's ● Feb. 4, 2026
It only compounded the pain that gnaws at him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2026
One man gnaws at a fleshless bone, clearly desperate for food.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2025
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
Finnick gives her the last bit of bread and she gnaws on it.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
Sponsor Nike has even started to dress him in nice clothes, though I’m not sure what to do with that macrame-style warm-up jacket, which looks like it spent a winter getting gnawed by moths.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Every run that Australia managed to eke out for their final wicket would have gnawed away at Bavuma who was, if we are being hypercritical, guilty of a slight captaincy misstep.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2025
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
Residents often make lightning visits south to survey the destruction, ranging from flattened houses to furniture gnawed to pieces by rats.
From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2024
“The witch knows!” said another man, whose muskrat dæmon gnawed unceasingly at a pencil.
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
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
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
The ferret had therefore deliberately gnawn away the hindquarters and so bored a passage.
From The Amateur Poacher by Richard Jefferies
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 The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole
On the east side a strange section of gray lava and ash is gnawn into caves.
From At Last by Charles Kingsley
Danged if I knawed 'en, vurst along, the vace of 'en's that altered: grawed a beard, her hev.
From The Delectable Duchy by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
Then the chap just catched wan feesh proper, an' St. Neot ate en, an' grawed well by sundown.
From Lying Prophets by Eden Phillpotts
The “Marsh King” got up and said, “I allus telled yer yer must graw wool; but when you’ve grawed it, yer mustn’t sit on it, yer must sell it.”
From Tennyson and His Friends by Various
“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
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
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
Or that night we stumbled onto a giant controlled burn and saw the flames reach up and tickle the moon and recognized the gnawing feeling that fire is something we can only feign to control.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 5, 2026
Instead I felt a gnawing sense of guilt.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
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
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
