Canker
Canker (kan"kẽr) , noun
[Old English canker, cancre, Anglo-Saxon cancer (akin to Dutch kanker, OHG chanchar.), from Latin cancer a cancer; or if a native word, compare Greek {not transcribed} excrescence on tree, {not transcribed} gangrene. Compare also Old French cancre, French chancere, from Latin cancer. See cancer, and compare Chancre.]
1.
A corroding or sloughing ulcer; esp. a spreading gangrenous ulcer or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth; -- called also water canker, canker of the mouth, and noma.
2.
Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroy.
The cankers of envy and faction.
3.
(Horticulture) A disease incident to trees, causing the bark to rot and fall off.
4.
(Farriery) 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.
5.
A kind of wild, worthless rose; the dog-rose.
To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose.
And plant this thorm, this canker, Bolingbroke.
Collocations (1)
Black canker , See under Black.
Canker (kan"kẽr) , transitive verb
1.
To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume.
No lapse of moons can canker Love.
2.
To infect or pollute; to corrupt. — Addison
A tithe purloined cankers the whole estate.
Canker , intransitive verb
1.
To waste away, grow rusty, or be oxidized, as a mineral. [Obsolete]
Silvering will sully and canker more than gliding.
2.
To be or become diseased, or as if diseased, with canker; to grow corrupt; to become venomous.
Deceit and cankered malice.
As with age his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers.