How to Use gnaw in a Sentence

gnaw

verb
  • The dog was gnawing a bone.
  • Rabbits had gnawed a hole in the hedge.
  • Rabbits have gnawed at the hedge.
  • He nervously gnawed on his fingernails.
  • The baby gnawed on the wood posts.
    — Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2025
  • That’s gnawed-on, as in rodents.
    — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 19 Dec. 2025
  • Pesky squirrels who like to gnaw on those lines have to be dealt with.
    — Thomas Farragher, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Mar. 2018
  • The end of his tenure with the Cubs gnaws it him.
    — Ken Rosenthal, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Is your baby more likely to gnaw on a board book than read it?
    — Maggie Panos, Woman's Day, 28 Feb. 2023
  • So there are these little things that are starting to gnaw at him.
    — Dalton Ross, EW.com, 14 Oct. 2019
  • As the days passed with no word from him, anxiety gnawed at me.
    — Brian Barnett, STAT, 2 July 2018
  • That will require the lorises to gnaw on the wood to get the gum out of the tubes.
    — Amy Schwabe, Journal Sentinel, 13 Feb. 2023
  • The roof rat will gnaw on the ripe fruit, opening a 2-3 inch hole in the rind.
    — Michael Harrelson, sandiegouniontribune.com, 12 Apr. 2018
  • Some live with the gnawing fear of running out of options.
    — Lauryn Higgins, Flow Space, 24 Sep. 2025
  • The space from the plant is so mice and other rodents do not gnaw on the base of the plant.
    — oregonlive, 12 Dec. 2021
  • The country has little to do but wait and try not to gnaw itself to bits.
    — Washington Post, 20 Apr. 2021
  • But the plastic bottles that littered the beach gnawed at them.
    — Megan Cerullo, CBS News, 20 Dec. 2019
  • This eclipse is about releasing old gnawing thoughts and the hurts of the past.
    — Emily Simone, Allure, 15 July 2019
  • Mice and voles will gnaw the tree from under the snow or use the cover of long grass or thick mulch.
    — Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Some bone lovers believe that the wee bits gnawed off the bone are the best, the sweetest bits of all.
    — Bill St. John, The Denver Post, 10 July 2019
  • Voles go for grass, but also gnaw on shrubs and stems nearest their holes and runways.
    — oregonlive, 16 May 2022
  • This, along with lunch, is the gnawing concern at the back of the critic’s mind.
    — Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 30 June 2026
  • He is gone now, and the waves gnaw at the shore and the island slowly sinks into the sea.
    — Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper’s Magazine , 17 Aug. 2022
  • Sybil bears a tremendous burden and gnawing guilt.
    — Shruti Mutalik, Baltimore Sun, 7 Jan. 2026
  • An electric line runs from a pole on the street into a hole in the façade that looks like it was gnawed out.
    — Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 9 Aug. 2023
  • Steel wool can also be pushed into the gap since mice don’t like trying to gnaw through it.
    — Bestreviews, Mercury News, 10 Mar. 2026
  • Even if a hole doesn't start out that large, the rodents gnaw their way to make the opening larger.
    — Beth Kaufman, Good Housekeeping, 26 Jan. 2021
  • Despite all of this, Musa felt a gnawing emptiness in his life.
    — David Peisner, Rolling Stone, 23 Feb. 2025
  • Don't worry—the rope on this bridge is much more durable than the one in the movie and is ready to be chewed and gnawed on.
    — Tainaya Nash, House Beautiful, 25 June 2019
  • Even if a hole doesn't start out that large, the rodents can gnaw their way to make the opening larger.
    — Beth Kaufman, Good Housekeeping, 26 Jan. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gnaw.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: