gnawing


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gnaw

 (nô)
v. gnawed, gnaw·ing, gnaws
v.tr.
1.
a. To bite, chew on, or erode with the teeth.
b. To produce by gnawing: gnaw a hole.
c. To erode or diminish gradually as if by gnawing: waves gnawing the rocky shore.
2. To afflict or worry persistently: fear that constantly gnawed me.
v.intr.
1. To bite or chew persistently: The dog gnawed at the bone.
2. To cause erosion or gradual diminishment.
3. To cause persistent worry or pain: Hunger gnawed at the prisoners.
[Middle English gnauen, from Old English gnagan.]
gnaw′er n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

gnaw•ing

(ˈnɔ ɪŋ)

n.
1. the act of a person or thing that gnaws.
2. Usu., gnawings. persistent, dull pains; pangs: the gnawings of hunger.
[1300–50]
gnaw′ing•ly, adv.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

gnawing

adjective continuous, constant, endless, persistent, nagging, perpetual, continual, niggling, incessant Her exhilaration gave way to gnawing fear.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

gnawing

adjective
Marked by severity or intensity:
acute, knifelike, lancinating, piercing, sharp, shooting, stabbing.
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
مُزْعِج، مُضايِق
hlodající
gnavende
marcangoló
iç kemiriciüzücü

gnawing

[ˈnɔːɪŋ] ADJ
1. [sound] → persistente
2. (fig) [remorse, anxiety etc] → corrosivo; [hunger] → con retortijones; [pain] → punzante
I had a gnawing feeling that something had been forgotten → me atormentaba la idea de que se había olvidado algo
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

gnawing

adj doubt, hunger, pain → nagend; fear, guilt, remorse, anxiety → quälend
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

gnawing

[ˈnɔːɪŋ] adj (hunger, pain) → che attanaglia; (remorse, anxiety) → attanagliante; (doubt) → assillante
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

gnaw

(noː) verb
to bite or chew with a scraping movement. The dog was gnawing a large bone; The mice have gnawed holes in the walls of this room.
gnawing adjective
annoying; disturbing. a gnawing problem.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.

gnawing

adj (pain) sordo y persistente
English-Spanish/Spanish-English Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Mentioned in ?
References in classic literature ?
When Roderick Elliston regained entire sensibility, it was to find his misfortune the town talk--the more than nine days' wonder and horror--while, at his bosom, he felt the sickening motion of a thing alive, and the gnawing of that restless fang which seemed to gratify at once a physical appetite and a fiendish spite.
Another mistake; for if Roderick had not yet been destroyed by his own poisoned heart nor the snake by gnawing it, they had little to fear from arsenic or corrosive sublimate.
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In one well-marked instance, I put the comb back into the hive, and allowed the bees to go on working for a short time, and again examined the cell, and I found that the rhombic plate had been completed, and had become perfectly flat: it was absolutely impossible, from the extreme thinness of the little rhombic plate, that they could have effected this by gnawing away the convex side; and I suspect that the bees in such cases stand in the opposed cells and push and bend the ductile and warm wax (which as I have tried is easily done) into its proper intermediate plane, and thus flatten it.
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I was ashamed (even now, perhaps, I am ashamed): I got to the point of feeling a sort of secret abnormal, despicable enjoyment in returning home to my corner on some disgusting Petersburg night, acutely conscious that that day I had committed a loathsome action again, that what was done could never be undone, and secretly, inwardly gnawing, gnawing at myself for it, tearing and consuming myself till at last the bitterness turned into a sort of shameful accursed sweetness, and at last--into positive real enjoyment!
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But it came nearer still, and still nearer--and at last it was right in the room: it was merely a mouse gnawing the woodwork.
Presently I was deriving exquisite suffering from this employment, yet maybe I could have endured it if the mouse had attended steadily to his work; but he did not do that; he stopped every now and then, and I suffered more while waiting and listening for him to begin again than I did while he was gnawing. Along at first I was mentally offering a reward of five--six--seven--ten--dollars for that mouse; but toward the last I was offering rewards which were entirely beyond my means.
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Mainly they were drinking -- from entire ox horns; but a few were still munching bread or gnawing beef bones.
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Great obligations do not make grateful, but revengeful; and when a small kindness is not forgotten, it becometh a gnawing worm.
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Anyone's welcome to it." And his jaw twitched impatiently from the incessant gnawing toothache, that prevented him from even speaking with a natural expression.
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In stories of ghosts and murderers they scamper through the echoing rooms, and the gnawing of their teeth is heard behind the wainscot, and their gleaming eyes peer through the holes in the worm-eaten tapestry, and they scream in shrill, unearthly notes in the dead of night, while the moaning wind sweeps, sobbing, round the ruined turret towers, and passes wailing like a woman through the chambers bare and tenantless.
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It chanced one day, as Peter sat Gnawing a crust--his usual meal-- Paul bustled in to have a chat, And grasped his hand with friendly zeal.
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What is this gnawing of conscience I am feeling now?" she thought.
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