Gnash

//ˈnæʃ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sudden snapping of the teeth.
Verb
  1. 1
    To grind (one's teeth) in pain or in anger. transitive

    "gnashing your teeth"

  2. 2
    grind together, of teeth wordnet
  3. 3
    To grind between the teeth. transitive

    "to gnash the air in fury"

  4. 4
    To clash together violently. figuratively

    "There they were, boiling up in snowy spouts of spray, smiting and gnashing together like the gleaming teeth of hell."

  5. 5
    To run away. Geordie

Synonyms

All synonyms
biteboluschampchatterchawchew

Example

More examples

"There they were, boiling up in snowy spouts of spray, smiting and gnashing together like the gleaming teeth of hell."

Etymology

From Middle English gnasten. Origin unknown; the word is probably either Germanic or onomatopoeic. Compare Old Norse gnastan, Danish gnaske ("munch", "crunch"), German knirschen, German Low German gnirschen, gnörschen (“gnash”), Swedish gnissla (“squeak; gnash”).

Related phrases

gnash upweeping and wailing and gnashing of teethrun away

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.