gnawing

Converse of object

• keep: He will try to forget it and may even remove himself from the scene but it will keep gnawing at his heart.
• hear: She could hear the gnawing of teeth behind the curtain of ash tinted blood-red.
• have: But beneath this glittering surface, Bram Stoker had something gnawing away at his mind.
• see: Yet, on medieval battlefields and during plagues - times of ultimate horror - they were seen gnawing the dead bodies.

Preposition: at

• foundation: She fears the sea could be gnawing at the foundations of her house within 20 years.

Preposition: through

• woodwork: They also damage property by gnawing through woodwork, wires, pipes and household items.

Adjective modifier

• constant: Having a constant gnawing in your gut and hallucinations about pork rinds is not a merry thing.

Modifies a noun

• hunger: A never-ending gnawing hunger in the pit of your tormented soul.
• pain: Despite the gnawing pain across his skull, aching ribs, and the awful taste in his mouth, Gus got a hard-on.
• mark: The gnawing marks on the bison's jaw are either from wolf or hyena, probably the former.
• sense: Under the immediately esthetic surface there is a gnawing sense of unrest which makes the work all the more interesting.
• material: Always make sure the rat has a good supply of gnawing materials and plenty of hard foods to help keep the teeth from overgrowing.
• anxiety: The level of symptoms that people with medical phobias experience varies a great deal, from gnawing anxiety to very severe panic and terror.

Noun used with modifier

• carnivore: Burning and carnivore gnawing were not particularly common and an average of 9 % of bones had been butchered.
• rat: Feel the humiliation of sleeping in urine and bile, the pain of rats gnawing at their feet, their legs, their genitals.
• dog: Dog gnawing was even less frequent, recorded in small amounts in 17 contexts from ten features.
• rodent: Rodent gnawing is most common in Bronze Age deposits ( 0.04 % ) and absent in Byzantine samples.
• hunger: We looked a very sorry sight, covered in dirt and grime with hunger gnawing at our bellies.

Preposition: on

• nut: Another mouse a few feet down was less self-concious and was gnawing on a nut or something.