Part 539

Gnat"worm` (?), n. (Zoˆl.) The aquatic larva of a gnat; -- called also, colloquially, wiggler.

Gnaw (n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gnawed (nd); p. pr. & vb. n. Gnawing.] [OE. gnawen, AS. gnagan; akin to D. knagen, OHG. gnagan, nagan, G. nagen, Icel. & Sw. gnaga, Dan. gnave, nage. Cf. Nag to tease.] 1. To bite, as something hard or tough, which is not readily separated or crushed; to bite off little by little, with effort; to wear or eat away by scraping or continuous biting with the teeth; to nibble at.

His bones clean picked; his very bones they gnaw.

Dryden.

2. To bite in agony or rage.

They gnawed their tongues for pain.

Rev. xvi. 10.

3. To corrode; to fret away; to waste.

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.

Gnaw"er (?), n. 1. One who, or that which, gnaws.

2. (Zoˆl.) A rodent.

Gneiss (ns), 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.

Gneis"sic (ns"sk), a. Relating to, or resembling, gneiss; consisting of gneiss.

Gneis"soid (-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.

Gneis"sose` (?), a. Having the structure of gneiss.

Gnew (n), obs. imp. of Gnaw. Chaucer.

Gnide (nd), v. t. [AS. gndan.] 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 (nf), n. Churl; curmudgeon. [Obs.] Chaucer.

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. (Zoˆl.) A small owl (Glaucidium gnoma) of the Western United States.

4. [Gr. &?;.] A brief reflection or maxim. Peacham.

{ Gnom"ic (?), Gnom"ic*al (?), } a. [Gr. &?;, fr. &?;: cf. F. gnomique. See Gnome maxim.] Sententious; uttering or containing maxims, or striking detached thoughts; aphoristic.

A city long famous as the seat of elegiac and gnomic poetry.

G. R. Lewes.