Adjacent Words

Canker definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CANKER, n.
1. A disease incident to trees, which causes the bark to rot and fall.
2. A popular name of certain small eroding ulcers in the mouth, particularly of children. They are generally covered with a whitish slough.
3. A virulent, corroding ulcer; or any thing that corrodes, corrupts or destroys.
Sacrilege may prove an eating canker.
And their word will eat as doth a canker. Tim. 2.
4. An eating, corroding, virulent humor; corrosion.
5. A kind of rose, the dog rose.
6. In farriery, a running thrush of the worst kind; a disease in horses feet, discharging a fetid matter from the cleft in the middle of the frog.
CANKER, v.i. To grow corrupt; to decay, or waste away by means of any noxious cause; to grow rusty, or to be oxydized, as a metal.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a fungal disease of woody plants that causes localized damage to the bark
2: an ulceration (especially of the lips or lining of the mouth) [syn: canker, canker sore]
3: a pernicious and malign influence that is hard to get rid of; "racism is a pestilence at the heart of the nation"; "according to him, I was the canker in their midst" [syn: pestilence, canker] v
1: become infected with a canker
2: infect with a canker

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French cancre, chancre, from Latin cancer crab, cancer Date: before 12th century 1. a. (1) an erosive or spreading sore (2) an area of necrosis in a plant; also a plant disease characterized by cankers b. any of various disorders of animals marked by chronic inflammatory changes 2. archaic a caterpillar destructive to plants 3. chiefly dialect rust 1 4. a source of corruption or debasement 5. chiefly dialect dog rose • cankerous adjective II. verb (cankered; cankering) Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. obsolete to infect with a spreading sore 2. to corrupt the spirit of intransitive verb 1. to become infested with canker 2. to become corrupted

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a a destructive fungus disease of trees and plants. b an open wound in the stem of a tree or plant. 2 Zool. an ulcerous ear disease of animals esp. cats and dogs. 3 Med. an ulceration esp. of the lips. 4 a corrupting influence. --v.tr. 1 consume with canker. 2 corrupt. 3 (as cankered adj.) soured, malignant, crabbed. Phrases and idioms: canker-worm any caterpillar of various wingless moths which consume the buds and leaves of shade and fruit trees in N. America. Derivatives: cankerous adj. Etymology: OE cancer & ONF cancre, OF chancre f. L cancer crab

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Canker Can"ker (k[a^][ng]"k[~e]r), n. [OE. canker, cancre, AS. cancer (akin to D. kanker, OHG chanchar.), fr. L. cancer a cancer; or if a native word, cf. Gr. ? excrescence on tree, ? gangrene. Cf. also OF. cancre, F. chancere, fr. L. cancer. See cancer, and cf. 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. --Temple. 3. (Hort.) A disease incident to trees, causing the bark to rot and fall off. 4. (Far.) 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. --Shak. Black canker. See under Black.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Canker Can"ker (k[a^][ng]"k[~e]r), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cankered (-k[~e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Cankering.] 1. To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume. No lapse of moons can canker Love. --Tennyson. 2. To infect or pollute; to corrupt. --Addison. A tithe purloined cankers the whole estate. --Herbert.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Canker Can"ker, v. i. 1. To waste away, grow rusty, or be oxidized, as a mineral. [Obs.] Silvering will sully and canker more than gliding. --Bacom. 2. To be or become diseased, or as if diseased, with canker; to grow corrupt; to become venomous. Deceit and cankered malice. --Dryden. As with age his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers. --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(cankers) 1. A canker is something evil that spreads and affects things or people. (FORMAL) ...the canker of jealousy. N-COUNT 2. Canker is a disease which affects the wood of shrubs and trees, making the outer layer come away to expose the inside of the stem. In gardens, cankers are most prominent on apples and pear trees. N-VAR

Easton's Bible Dictionary

a gangrene or mortification which gradually spreads over the whole body (2 Tim. 2:17). In James 5:3 "cankered" means "rusted" (R.V.) or tarnished.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kan'-ker.

See GANGRENE.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Mordent ulcer, gangrene, rot. 2. Corrosion, erosion, blight. 3. Corruption, infection, blight, bane, bale, irritation. II. v. a. 1. Corrode, erode, eat away. 2. Infect, corrupt, blight, envenom, poison, sour, embitter, fill with gall. III. v. n. Be blighted, grow embittered, become malignant, become infected or corrupted.

Moby Thesaurus

abscess, adulterate, alloy, aposteme, bed sore, blain, blast, bleb, blight, blister, boil, break up, bubo, bulla, bunion, cancer, canker sore, carbuncle, chancre, chancroid, cheapen, chilblain, coarsen, cold sore, confound, contaminate, corrode, corrupt, crumble, crumble into dust, debase, debauch, decay, decompose, defile, deflower, degenerate, degrade, demoralize, denature, deprave, desecrate, despoil, devalue, disintegrate, distort, dry rot, eat, eat away, eat into, erode, eschar, fall into decay, fall to pieces, felon, fester, festering, fever blister, fistula, fungus, furuncle, furunculus, gangrene, gathering, gnaw, go bad, go to pieces, gumboil, hemorrhoids, infect, kibe, lesion, mildew, misuse, mold, molder, mortify, moth, moth and rust, must, necrose, nibble away, oxidize, papula, papule, paronychia, parulis, pervert, pest, petechia, piles, pimple, pock, poison, pollute, polyp, prostitute, pustule, putrefy, putresce, rankle, ravage, ravish, rising, rot, rust, scab, smut, soft chancre, sore, sphacelate, spoil, stain, stigma, sty, suppurate, suppuration, swelling, taint, tubercle, twist, ulcer, ulcerate, ulceration, violate, vitiate, vulgarize, wale, warp, welt, wheal, whelk, whitlow, worm, wound