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Knaw vs. Gnaw: What's the Difference?

"Knaw" is an incorrect spelling, while "gnaw" means to chew on something persistently, often used to describe rodents chewing on materials.

Knaw and Gnaw Definitions

Knaw

Archaic spelling of gnaw

Gnaw

To bite, chew on, or erode with the teeth.

Knaw

See Gnaw.

Gnaw

To produce by gnawing
Gnaw a hole.

Gnaw

To erode or diminish gradually as if by gnawing
Waves gnawing the rocky shore.
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Gnaw

To afflict or worry persistently
Fear that constantly gnawed me.

Gnaw

To bite or chew persistently
The dog gnawed at the bone.

Gnaw

To cause erosion or gradual diminishment.

Gnaw

To cause persistent worry or pain
Hunger gnawed at the prisoners.

Gnaw

(ambitransitive) To bite something persistently, especially something tough.
The dog gnawed the bone until it broke in two.
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Gnaw

(intransitive) To produce excessive anxiety or worry.
Her comment gnawed at me all day and I couldn't think about anything else.

Gnaw

To corrode; to fret away; to waste.

Gnaw

The act of gnawing
Have a gnaw of a bone

Gnaw

To bite, as something hard or tough, which is not readily separated or crushed; to bite off little by little, with effort; to wear or eat away by scraping or continuous biting with the teeth; to nibble at.
His bones clean picked; his very bones they gnaw.

Gnaw

To bite in agony or rage.
They gnawed their tongues for pain.

Gnaw

To corrode; to fret away; to waste.

Gnaw

To trouble in a constant manner; to plague; to worry; to vex; - usually used with at; as, his mounting debts gnawed at him.

Gnaw

To use the teeth in biting; to bite with repeated effort, as in eating or removing with the teeth something hard, unwieldy, or unmanageable.
I might well, like the spaniel, gnaw upon the chain that ties me.

Gnaw

Bite or chew on with the teeth;
Gnaw an old cracker
Chewed on a cookie

Gnaw

Become ground down or deteriorate;
Her confidence eroded

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