What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Encroach vs Gnaw - What's the difference?

encroach | gnaw |

In lang=en terms the difference between encroach and gnaw

is that encroach is to advance gradually beyond due limits while gnaw is to produce excessive anxiety or worry.

As verbs the difference between encroach and gnaw

is that encroach is (obsolete) to seize, appropriate while gnaw is to bite something persistently, especially something tough.

As a noun encroach

is (rare) encroachment.

encroach

English

Verb

(es)
  • (obsolete) to seize, appropriate
  • to intrude unrightfully on someone else's rights or territory
  • * 2005 , .
    • Because change itself would absolutely stay-stable, and again, conversely, stability itself would change, if each of them encroached on the other.
  • to advance gradually beyond due limits

    • Derived terms

    * encroacher * encroachment

    Noun

    (es)
  • (rare) Encroachment.
  • * 1805 , Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘What is Life?’:
    • All that we see, all colours of all shade, / By encroach of darkness made?
  • * 2002 , Caroline Winterer, The Culture of Classicism , JHU Press 2002, p. 116:
    • Shorey was among the most vociferous opponents of the encroach of scientism and utilitarianism in education and society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

    gnaw

    English

    Verb

  • To bite something persistently, especially something tough.
    • The dog gnawed the bone until it broke in two.
  • To produce excessive anxiety or worry.
    • Her comment gnawed at me all day and I couldn't think about anything else.
  • To corrode; to fret away; to waste.

    • Derived terms

    * gnawer * gnawable

    Anagrams

    *