canker
noun
- common name for a tree disease
verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L331081 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈkæŋkɚ/ / /ˈkæŋkə/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English canker, cancre, from Old English cancer (“cancer; crab”), akin to Dutch kanker, Old High German chanchar. Ultimately from Latin cancer (“a cancer”). Doublet of cancer, a later borrowing from Latin, and chancre, which came through French.
- A plant disease marked by gradual decay.
- A region of dead plant tissue caused by such a disease.
“Slightly sunken brown cankers of variable size and shape affect stem parts primarily below the soil line.”
- A worm or grub that destroys plant buds or leaves; cankerworm.
“loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud[…]”
- A corroding or sloughing ulcer; especially a spreading gangrenous ulcer or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth.
- Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroys.
“the canker of destitution and violence.”
“the cankers of envy and faction”
- A kind of wild rose; the dog rose.
“To put down Richard, that ſweet louely Roſe, And plant this thorne, this canker Bullingbrooke?”
- An obstinate and often incurable disease of a horse's foot, characterized by separation of the horny portion and the development of fungoid growths. Usually resulting from neglected thrush.
- An avian disease affecting doves, poultry, parrots and birds of prey, caused by Trichomonas gallinae.
- A crab.
“This Caſtoꝛ liueth by water and lande, he loueth to feede vpon Crabbes and Cankers of the Sea.”
“It is this power of active motion which has obtained it a local name in the West of Cornwall, where, as crabs in general are termed "cankers," this species is distinguished by the name of "flying canker."”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English cankren, from the noun (see above).
- To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume.
“Still onward winds the dreary way; / I with it; for I long to prove / No lapse of moons can canker Love, / Whatever fickle tongues may say.”
- To infect or pollute; to corrupt.
- To waste away, grow rusty, or be oxidized, as a mineral.
- To be or become diseased, or as if diseased, with canker; to grow corrupt; to become venomous.
“as with age his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers.”
“[…] the road, always in bad condition, was edged with dog roses that scratched the paint. Blossom after blossom crept past them, draggled by the ungenial year: some had cankered, others would never unfold:”