3. To corrode; to fret away; to waste.
Gnaw
(Gnaw), v. i. To use the teeth in biting; to bite with repeated effort, as in eating or removing with
the teethsomething hard, unwiedly, or unmanageable.
I might well, like the spaniel, gnaw upon the chain that ties me.
Sir P. Sidney. Gnawer
(Gnaw"er) n.
1. One who, or that which, gnaws.
2. (Zoöl.) A rodent.
Gneiss
(Gneiss) n. [G.] (Geol.) A crystalline rock, consisting, like granite, of quartz, feldspar, and mica,
but having these materials, especially the mica, arranged in planes, so that it breaks rather easily into
coarse slabs or flags. Hornblende sometimes takes the place of the mica, and it is then called hornblendic
or syenitic gneiss. Similar varieties of related rocks are also called gneiss.
Gneissic
(Gneis"sic) a. Relating to, or resembling, gneiss; consisting of gneiss.
Gneissoid
(Gneis"soid) a. [Gneiss + -oid.] Resembling gneiss; having some of the characteristics of
gneiss; — applied to rocks of an intermediate character between granite and gneiss, or mica slate and
gneiss.
Gneissose
(Gneis"sose`) a. Having the structure of gneiss.
Gnew
(Gnew) obs. imp. of Gnaw. Chaucer.
Gnide
(Gnide) v. t. [AS. gnidan.] To rub; to bruise; to break in pieces. [Obs.]
This word is found in Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, but improperly. The woed, though common in Old English,
does not occur in Chaucer. T. R. Lounsbury.
Gnof
(Gnof) n. Churl; curmudgeon. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Gnome
(Gnome) n. [F. gnome, prob. fr. Gr. gnw`mon one that knows, a guardian, i. e., of the treasures
in the inner parts of the earth, or fr. intelligence, both fr. gnw^nai, gignw^skein, to know. See Know.]
1. An imaginary being, supposed by the Rosicrucians to inhabit the inner parts of the earth, and to be
the guardian of mines, quarries, etc.
2. A dwarf; a goblin; a person of small stature or misshapen features, or of strange appearance.
3. (Zoöl.) A small owl (Glaucidium gnoma) of the Western United States.
4. A brief reflection or maxim. Peacham.
