gnawin

"Better do that than be gnawin 'yourself," he said, looking critically at my bitten nails.

Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992

"Zere's no great sorrer gnawin 'chure vitals, is zere, Moffski?"

Tin-Types Taken in the Streets of New York A Series of Stories and Sketches Portraying Many Singular Phases of Metropolitan Life Lemuel Ely Quigg

"I been gnawin 'on it ever since you talked so last spring," admitted his friend, rather shyly.

Hiram the Young Farmer Burbank L. Todd

"Wisht I was chawin 'on a juicy sparerib or gnawin' me a greasy pig's knuckle right now," she'd say.

Blue Ridge Country Jean Thomas 1945

"What's gnawin 'you," said Asa, softly, "is that I got the best farm and that I'm a-goin 'to git your girl."

Scattergood Baines Clarence Budington Kelland 1922

However, I saw what was gnawin 'at the boy, and if ever a man needed a friend and criminal lawyer, that was the time.

Pardners Rex Ellingwood Beach 1913

I use 'to go to mend her lace an' sell orris root to her -- an 'Madame Proudfit an' Clementina would be there, buyin 'an' livin 'on the outside, judicious an' refined an 'rill right about everything; but when Linda come in, she sort o' reached somewheres, deep, or up, or out, or like that, an 'got somethin' that meant it all instead o 'gnawin' its way through words.

Friendship Village Zona Gale 1906

You never knew wot it was to go 'ungry, to cry yerself asleep with yer little belly gnawin' an 'gnawin', like a rat inside yer.

Chapter 13 1904

London he knew ivry polisman was sayin ':' There goes a man that pretinds to be happy, but a dark sorrow is gnawin 'at his bosom.

Mr. Dooley's Philosophy Finley Peter Dunne 1901

You never knew wot it was to go 'ungry, to cry yerself asleep with yer little belly gnawin' an 'gnawin', like a rat inside yer.

The Sea Wolf Jack London 1896