canker
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkæŋkɚ/
ipa: /ˈkæŋkə/
rhymes: -æŋkə(ɹ)
Forms: form: cankers
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.
Senses: topics: biology
botany
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
phytopathology
sciences
glosses: A plant disease marked by gradual decay.
examples: text: Slightly sunken brown cankers of variable size and shape affect stem parts primarily below the soil line.
ref: 1977, The Potato: Major Diseases and Nematodes, International Potato Center, page 46:
glosses: A region of dead plant tissue caused by such a disease.
examples: text: loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud[…]
ref: 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 35”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
glosses: A worm or grub that destroys plant buds or leaves; cankerworm.
glosses: A corroding or sloughing ulcer; especially a spreading gangrenous ulcer or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth.
examples: text: the cankers of envy and faction
ref: c. 1690, Sir William Temple, Of Heroick Virtue:
text: There’s canker at the root, your seed
Denies the blessing of the sun,
The light essential to your need.
Your hopes are murdered and undone.
ref: 1941, Theodore Roethke, “Feud”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC, page 4:
glosses: Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroys.
examples: text: To put down Richard, that ſweet louely Roſe,
And plant this thorne, this canker Bullingbrooke?
ref: c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], signature [B.iv.], recto:
glosses: A kind of wild rose; the dog rose.
glosses: 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.
glosses: An avian disease affecting doves, poultry, parrots and birds of prey, caused by Trichomonas gallinae.
examples: text: This Caſtoꝛ liueth by water and lande, he loueth to feede vpon Crabbes and Cankers of the Sea.
ref: 1562, Williyam Bulleyn [i.e., William Bullein], “The Booke of Simples”, in Bulleins Bulwarke of Defẽce againste All Sicknes, Sornes, and Woundes, That Dooe Daily Assaulte Mankinde, […], London: […] Ihon Kyngston, →OCLC, folio lxxx, verso:
text: 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."
ref: 1856, The Zoologist, volumes 14-15, page 5616:
glosses: A crab.
Synonyms: sense: ulcer, especially of the mouth
word: water canker
sense: ulcer, especially of the mouth
word: canker of the mouth
sense: ulcer, especially of the mouth
word: noma
sense: bird disease
word: avian trichomoniasis
sense: bird disease
word: roup
sense: hawk disease
word: frounce
Derived terms: black canker
canker fly
cankerlike
cankerous
canker rash
canker sore
cankerwort
cankery
encanker
Related terms: chancre