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Webster 1913 Edition

Canker

Can′ker

(kăṉ′kẽr)
,
Noun.
[OE.
canker
,
cancre
, AS.
cancer
(akin to D.
kanker
, OHG
chanchar
.), fr. L.
cancer
a cancer; or if a native word, cf. Gr. [GREEK] excrescence on tree, [GREEK] 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.
Shakespeare
Black canker
.
See under
Black
.

Can′ker

(kăṉ′kẽr)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Cankered
(-kẽrd)
;
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

,
Verb.
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
.
Shakespeare

Webster 1828 Edition

Canker

CANKER

,
Noun.
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

,
Verb.
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.

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