GNAW in a Sentence

Learn GNAW from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For GNAW, below is one of 52 sentences:
It consisted of a multitude of dull scratches which produced a metallic sound, as if claws and teeth were gnawing at the copper wire.

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 Meanings and Examples of GNAW
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
gnaw
 v.  bite or chew on with the teeth
Classic Sentence: (44 in 3 pages)
1  Melanie smiled at him through sparkling tears while Scarlett felt the fox of wrath and impotent hate gnaw at her vitals.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER IX
2  I'd be willing to live in the swamps, and gnaw the bark from trees.
Uncle Tom's Cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVI
3  The prisoners, in their expressive language, have named it the "Lions' Den," probably because the captives possess teeth which frequently gnaw the bars, and sometimes the keepers also.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 107. The Lions' Den.
4  The hideous hunger for opium began to gnaw at him.
The Picture of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 16
5  It was a month before he had news, news that raised them to the heights when they first heard it, but later created a gnawing anxiety in their hearts.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XVI
6  Scarlett sponged her face in silence but fear was gnawing at her.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXI
7  She sat down on the steps in the circle of faint light thrown by the lamp and continued gnawing on the corn bread.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXIII
8  He was not fearing the things she feared, not the gnawing of an empty stomach, nor the keenness of the winter wind nor eviction from Tara.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXI
9  Scarlett's eyes went unwillingly to the miserable group gnawing on the ham and she thought of the sick man lying in the windy shack.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XLIV
10  So they went home, with a deadly terror gnawing at their souls; and that evening Jurgis came home and heard their story, and that was the end.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 4
11  Although fully aware of the gnawing power of light on privileges, he left his throne exposed to the light.
Les Misérables 4 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER III—LOUIS PHILIPPE
12  One of them held in his hand and raised to his mouth something which had the appearance of a black stone and which he seemed to be gnawing; it was bread which he was eating.
Les Misérables 4 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 3: CHAPTER VIII—THE CHAIN-GANG
13  It consisted of a multitude of dull scratches which produced a metallic sound, as if claws and teeth were gnawing at the copper wire.
Les Misérables 4 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 6: CHAPTER II—IN WHICH LITTLE GAVROCHE EXTRACTS PROFIT FROM ...
14  D'Artagnan, who for an hour past had been gnawing his nails with impatience, was beginning to attack the quick.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 26 ARAMIS AND HIS THESIS
15  On that spot, in very truth, there was, and there had long been, the gnawing and poisonous tooth of bodily pain.
The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Context  Highlight   In XII. THE MINISTER'S VIGIL
Example Sentence:
1  I leant against a pillar of the verandah, drew my grey mantle close about me, and, trying to forget the cold which nipped me without, and the unsatisfied hunger which began to gnaw me within.
2  Tom's fearful secret and gnawing conscience disturbed his sleep for as much as a week after this.
3  Tom's fearful secret and gnawing conscience disturbed his sleep for as much as a week after this; and at breakfast one morning Sid said: "Tom, you pitch around and talk in your sleep so much that you keep me awake half the time."
4  The rats was gnawing at the box.
5  I leant against a pillar of the verandah, drew my grey mantle close about me, and, trying to forget the cold which nipped me without, and the unsatisfied hunger which gnawed me within.
6  A rat had gnawed a hole in the box.
7  It is a blazing morning in the Permian basin, in west Texas, America's most productive oilfield; on the high plains a rig gnaws at rock more than 3,000 feet underground.
8  While the dog gnaws bone, companions would be none.