gnaw

GNAW, verb transitive naw. [ Gr. to scrape.] 1. To bite off by little and little; to bite or scrape off with the fore teeth; to wear away by biting. The rats gnaw a board or plank; a worm gnaws the wood of a tree or the plank of a ship. 2. To eat by biting off small portions of food with the fore teeth. 3. To bite in agony or rage. They gnawed their tongues for pain. Revelation 16:10. 4. To waste; to fret; to corrode. 5. To pick with the teeth. His bones clean picked; his very bones they gnaw GNAW, verb intransitive naw. To use the teeth in biting. I might well, like the spaniel, gnaw upon the chain that ties me.