Definition of "begnaw"

begnaw

/bɪˈnɔː/

verb
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.
  Quotations
  The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul.
  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, [Act I, scene iii]
  […] that man might see, / What worm begnaws — that vital core concealing / All its vile, consumptive bane, […]
  1832, Thomas Holley Chivers, The Path of Sorrow, Or, The Lament of Youth: A Poem, page 90
  Above him hangs, all torn, tattered, and rat-begnawed, "A View of the Gold Mines of Peru."
  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