Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of 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}.
\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.
\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.