gnaw

Object

• pencil: Who needs pesky newspapers, dog-eared quiz books and gnawed pencils?
• bone: Around the bed lie more letters, a postman's bag and a pile of gnawed bones.
• hole: The ants nest in the hollow branches into which they gain access through specially gnawed holes.
• bark: They will eat bulbs, roots, seeds and flower buds as well as gnaw bark.
• mark: Signs of their presence are droppings, gnaw marks and smears where their fur has left grease marks on surfaces they have brushed against.

Preposition: on

• bone: He would then proceed to gnaw on the bones and then throw them back into the soup.

Preposition: at

• end: The bone had been gnawed at both ends by a carnivore.

Preposition: through

• cable: It would be unwise to underestimate the damage which could occur should rats and mice gnaw through cables.
• pipe: Fires can be cause in this way and rats can even gnaw through pipes, causing flooding.

Modifying Another Word

• away: Most players play too long at their game of choice, allowing the house edge to gnaw away at their stakes.
• even: Fires can be cause in this way and rats can even gnaw through pipes, causing flooding.
• also: They can also gnaw the roots below ground level.
• relentlessly: Wales was thereby defined by Offa more than 1,200 years ago, creating a border relentlessly gnawed at in the succeeding centuries.
• gently: Sip it slowly, and gnaw gently on your bottom lip.
• continually: Rodents have permanently growing incisor teeth; they must continually gnaw to keep their teeth under control.

Followed by an intransitive particle

• off: But please please get a move on with more ASG, before I gnaw off my own leg in protest.
• away: Then the crab secretly inserts a small stone and, preventing the oyster from closing up again, gnaws away its flesh.

Subject

• dog: Plain, flat comb of Type 4, with squared butt-end, at which point it appears to have been gnawed by a dog.

Infinitive complement

• keep: A chinchilla needs to constantly gnaw to keep these teeth worn down.

Preposition: by

• dog: Plain, flat comb of Type 4, with squared butt-end, at which point it appears to have been gnawed by a dog.