begnaw

From Middle English *begnawen, from Old English begnagan (“to begnaw, gnaw all over”), equivalent to be- +‎ gnaw.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɪˈnɔː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /bɪˈnɔ/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /bɪˈnɑ/
• Rhymes: -ɔː

begnaw (third-person singular simple present begnaws, present participle begnawing, simple past begnawed, past participle begnawed or begnawn)

1. (transitive, archaic) To gnaw; to eat away at.
   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul.

   • 1832, Thomas Holley Chivers, The Path of Sorrow, Or, The Lament of Youth: A Poem, page 90:

     […] that man might see, / What worm begnaws — that vital core concealing / All its vile, consumptive bane, […]

   • 1860, William Hogarth: Painter, Engraver and Philosopher; Essays on the Man, the Work, and the Time, VII, A History of Hard Work, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume 2, issues 7-12, page 238:

     Above him hangs, all torn, tattered, and rat-begnawed, "A View of the Gold Mines of Peru."

   • 1979 February 3, “Anabel Millet Lee (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 27, page 13:

     melancoly and begnawed palms

• “begnaw”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Bangwe