canker

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæŋkɚ/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkæŋkə/
• Rhymes: -æŋkə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: can‧ker

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Etymology 1

(deprecated template usage)

From Middle English canker, cancre, from Old English cancer, 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.

Noun

canker (countable and uncountable, plural cankers)

1. (phytopathology) A plant disease marked by gradual decay.
2. A worm or grub that destroys plant buds or leaves; cankerworm.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 35:

     loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud ...

3. A corroding or sloughing ulcer; especially a spreading gangrenous ulcer or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth.
4. Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroys.
   • (Can we date this quote by Temple and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     the cankers of envy and faction

5. A kind of wild rose; the dog rose.
   • ca. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act I, sc. 3:

     To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,

     An plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?

6. 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.
7. An avian disease affecting doves, poultry, parrots and birds of prey, caused by Trichomonas gallinae.

Synonyms

• (ulcer, especially of the mouth): water canker, canker of the mouth, noma
• (bird disease): avian trichomoniasis, roup
• (hawk disease): frounce

Related terms

• chancre

Translations

plant disease marked by gradual decay

• Russian: рак (ru) m (rak)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

corroding or sloughing ulcer

• Greek:

  Ancient: φαγέδαινα f (phagédaina)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

avian disease caused by T. gallinae

• Dutch: geel (nl) n, steen (nl) n
• German: gelber Knopf
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: żółty guzek

Etymology 2

From Middle English cankren, from the noun (see above).

Verb

canker (third-person singular simple present cankers, present participle cankering, simple past and past participle cankered)

1. (transitive) To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume.
   • 1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, 26:

     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.

2. (transitive) To infect or pollute; to corrupt.
3. (intransitive) To waste away, grow rusty, or be oxidized, as a mineral.
4. (intransitive) To be or become diseased, or as if diseased, with canker; to grow corrupt; to become venomous.
   • 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act IV, sc. 1:

     as with age his body uglier grows,

     So his mind cankers.

   • 1971, E. M. Forster, Maurice, Penguin, 1972, Chapter 36, p. 156,^[1]

     […] 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:

References

• “canker”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Neckar, nacker

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Scots

Alternative forms

• cancre, cankyr, kanker

Etymology

Middle English canker, cancre, Old English cancer, akin to Dutch kanker, Old High German chanchar. From Latin cancer (“a cancer”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːŋɡkʌr/

Noun

canker (plural cankers)

1. Bad temper.

Verb

canker (third-person singular simple present cankers, present participle cankerin, simple past cankert, past participle cankert)

1. (archaic) To become bad-tempered, to fret, to worry.