gnawing

comparative more gnawing · superlative most gnawing

1. severe or intense

   Engleitner found the constant gnawing hunger harder and harder to bear. When the rations eventually increased again and the prisoners were given stew, it did not make much difference to Engleitner.

   2013, Bernhard Rammerstorfer, Unbroken Will

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of gnaw

plural gnawings

1. The process by which something is gnawed.

   the gnawings of mice

2. A sensation of being gnawed.

   "If I made them suffer the pains of exile, I would not let them endure also the gnawings of starvation.

   1893, Marietta Holley, Samantha at the World's Fair

   2 more examples

   The spirit of slavery raves under tormenting gnawings, and casts about in blind phrenzy for something to ease, or even to mock them.

   1836, American Anti-Slavery Society, The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4

   But from the time we returned from our first journey, after having spent some months in trying, as some one put it, to "discover America," I felt the gnawings of excited appetite.

   1917, Julian Street, American Adventures