clawed

verb

past tense of claw
1
as in burrowed

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words
2
as in lacerated

Related Words

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for clawed
  1. dredged
  2. lacerated
  3. excavated
  4. cut
  5. chafed
  6. fretted
  7. galled
  8. barked
Verb
  • The combined sewage-overflow tanks that are supposed to divert sewage from running into the canal won’t be complete until 2029 — a seven-year delay that might require parts of the canal to be re-dredged again to remove the contamination.
    — Kim Velsey, Curbed, 9 Oct. 2026
  • His defenders have dredged statues out of rivers and remounted them.
    — Peter C. Mancall, The Conversation, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of dredged
Verb
  • The man’s muscles and skin were lacerated by the bear’s claws and teeth.
    — Jan Thacker, Outdoor Life, 3 Sep. 2026
  • Corbin fractured his jaw in two places, busted his upper arm, and lacerated his lip.
    — Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of lacerated
Verb
  • The remains of these servants, or retainers, were first excavated from the funerary complexes at Abydos, eastern Egypt, which date from around 3000 BC, in the 1920s.
    — Jack Guy, CNN Money, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Being mindful of its construction—the resort is five years in the making—each and every stone guests see is the stone found on the peninsula, excavated and repurposed to keep the area's natural materials intact.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of excavated
Verb
  • Inspectors observed cutting boards with cut marks and no longer cleanable in the first-floor kitchen.
    — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Ellison has taken an opposing view from his predecessors who confronted crumbling industry economics by cutting expenditures to boost their corporate bottom lines.
    — Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of cut
Verb
  • Through it all, Nussbaum chafed at the circumscribed role of women.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2026
  • They were married from 1976 to 1982, as Taylor chafed against the confines of being a politician’s wife following Warner’s election to the Senate in 1979.
    — Bailey Bujnosek, InStyle, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of chafed
Verb
  • After the duke’s death in 1972, the duchess, in increasingly poor health, fretted about what to do with her massive collection.
    — Hadley Hall Meares, Vanity Fair, 7 Oct. 2026
  • At the time, engineers fretted about the safest way to move so much water to the other side while maintaining the dam’s integrity.
    — Story Hinckley, Christian Science Monitor, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of fretted
Verb
  • Bundle is also galled by Lady Coote’s refusal to mention at the inquest that the fatal sleeping draft was from a bottle she’d given to her sleepless maid, Emily.
    — Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 15 Jan. 2026
  • From Warriors coach Steve Kerr, to future Hall of Famers Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green, to 25-year-old relative newcomers Quinten Post and Trayce Jackson-Davis, the team’s lack of competitive fire galled the Warriors.
    — Joseph Dycus, Mercury News, 8 Nov. 2025
Definition of galled
Verb
  • The upstairs neighbors had two mastiffs who were left home all day and who barked incessantly and scratched at the floor of their kennel.
    — Meghan O’Gieblyn, The New York Review of Books, 5 Sep. 2026
  • After the top of the ninth, Orioles reliever Cam Sanders barked at the Red Sox dugout, leading Ceddanne Rafaela and Jarren Duran to shout back from the top step, but nothing more transpired.
    — Jen McCaffrey, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of barked
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

claw
clawed
clawing
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Clawed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clawed. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of outlandish

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 9
See More

Popular

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
a cup of tea and a golf ball on tee side by side
Quiz: Sounds Like... Choose the word that sounds like it fits the clue...
See All