Synonyms:
gnaw
Meaning: bite or chew on with the teeth; "gnaw an old cracker"
Synonyms:
erode, gnaw, gnaw_at, eat_at, wear_away
Meaning: become ground down or deteriorate; "Her confidence eroded"
Usage examples
Nor can I gnaw away the boards, as I have no teeth."
They gnaw me now, they gnaw me now, There where I most did sin.
If a hole large enough for her to creep out, is closed with wax, they will gnaw the wax away, and liberate her themselves, from her confinement.
The elder hunter bethinks him of a solution for this problem. The broken blade will do to gnaw off this bough, and it will serve to make a split in the end of it.
"Should you require your dog to be watchful at night, feed him in the morning; if you would have him quiet at night, feed him late, and don't leave him bones to gnaw.
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.
I observed him, now and then, draw a large fragment of biscuit out of his pocket, and gnaw; whether it was his dinner, or whether he was endeavoring to keep off that exhaustion of the stomach, produced by much pondering over dry works, I leave to harder students than myself to determine.
Centuries before we were born or thought of there was a widely press-agented boy in Sparta who even went so far as to let a fox gnaw his tender young stomach without permitting the discomfort inseparable from such a proceeding to interfere with either his facial expression or his flow of small talk.