canker
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
botany
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
phytopathology
sciences
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.
Inflected forms:
form: cankers
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: cankers
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: cankering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: cankered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: cankered
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A plant disease marked by gradual decay.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A region of dead plant tissue caused by such a disease.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Slightly sunken brown cankers of variable size and shape affect stem parts primarily below the soil line.
gloss: A worm or grub that destroys plant buds or leaves; cankerworm.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud[…]
gloss: A corroding or sloughing ulcer; especially a spreading gangrenous ulcer or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroys.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: the canker of destitution and violence.
the cankers of envy and faction
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.
gloss: A kind of wild rose; the dog rose.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: To put down Richard, that ſweet louely Roſe,
And plant this thorne, this canker Bullingbrooke?
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: An avian disease affecting doves, poultry, parrots and birds of prey, caused by Trichomonas gallinae.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A crab.
pos: noun
tags: Cornwall
countable
rare
uncountable
examples: 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."
gloss: To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To infect or pollute; to corrupt.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To waste away, grow rusty, or be oxidized, as a mineral.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To be or become diseased, or as if diseased, with canker; to grow corrupt; to become venomous.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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:
Synonyms: encanker
Related words: chancre
Derived words: black canker
canker fly
cankerlike
cankerous
canker rash
canker sore
cankerwort
cankery
encanker
Translations: