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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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
