▪ I. canker, n.
(ˈkæŋkə(r))
Forms: 1 cancer, -or, 3 cauncre, 3–4 cancre, 4 kankir, 4, 6 cankre, 5 cankyr, kankere, 6 cancar, cankar, kanker, 6–7 cancker, 4– canker.
[a. ONF. cancre, in Central OF. and mod.F. chancre (whence also in Eng. shanker, chancre, q.v.):—L. cancr-um (nom. cancer) crab, also gangrene. The word had been used in OE. directly from L.]
1. An eating, spreading sore or ulcer; a gangrene. † a. Formerly, often the same as cancer. b. Now spec. A gangrenous affection of the mouth, characterized by small fetid sloughing ulcers; gangrenous stomatitis, stomacace. Also called canker of the mouth or water-canker. c. Farriery. A disease of the horse's foot, characterized by a fetid discharge from the frog.
For the specific sense a. the Latin cancer was introduced about 1600; but canker was used alongside of it till c 1700.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 110 Gemeng wið þam dustum, clæm on ðone cancer. Ibid. I. 370 Wið cancer-wund. a 1225 Ancr. R. 98 Ase holi writ seið, ‘hore speche spret ase cauncre.’ 1382 Wyclif 2 Tim. ii. 17 The word of hem crepith as a kankir [1388 canker, Vulg. ut cancer]. 1528 Paynell Salerne's Regim. X ij, A canker is a melancolye impostume, eatynge partes of the bodye. 1559 Mirr. Mag., Dk. Clarence xi. 3 No cankar fretteth flesh so sore. 1563 T. Gale Antidot. ii. 79 Cankers in the mouthes of the children. 1595 Shakes. John v. ii. 14 Heale the inueterate Canker of one wound, By making many. 1599 A. M. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physic 248/2 When as a woman getteth an obduratede Breste, & feareth leaste it be the Cancker. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 282 The Canker in the mouth..is a rawness of the mouth and tongue, which is full of blisters. 1630 Wadsworth Sp. Pilgr. viii. 88 Who had halfe his nose eaten away with a Canker. 1662 R. Mathew Unl. Alch. §99. 163 Women that have Cankers in their breasts. 1701 Lond. Gaz. No. 3723/4 Her [a mare's] Tongue almost eaten off with a Canker. c 1720 W. Gibson Farrier's Guide ii. lxiii. (1738) 219 A mishapen or rusty Bit..will create those sort of Ulcers the Farriers call Cankers. 1752 Berkeley Thoughts Tar-Water Wks. III. 497 The foul disease, which with them passeth for a canker as they call it. 1831 Youatt Horse xix. (1847) 401 Canker is a separation of the horn from the sensible part of the foot. |
† 2. Rust.
Obs. exc. dial.| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe i. 9 Choler, grene lyke to grene cankar of mettalls. 1557 Bible (Genev.) Matt. vi. 19 Wher the mothe and kanker corrupt. 1570 Levins Manip. 71 The canker on iron, ferrugo. 1855 Whitby Gloss., Canker, rust; oxidization on any metal, but especially iron. |
3. A disease of plants,
esp. fruit-trees, characterized by slow decay of the bark and tissues.
| 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 239 The disease of trees that the Latines caule Caries, which we may caule the worme or canker, being but a certeyne putrifaction. 1657 Austen Fruit Trees i. 54 Crab trees..are usually free from the Canker. 1813 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. v. (1814) 264 The canker or erosion of the bark and wood is a disease produced often..by a poverty of soil. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. I. 62 Such trees are..not liable to canker. |
b. (See
quot.)
| 1713 Lond. & Country Brew. ii. (1743) 92 Suffering others with their Shoes to tread on many of the Corns of the Malt while they lie working on the Floor, which is often attended with ill Consequences; for, by bruising the Kernels, there immediately commences the Growth of a Canker, that will show itself in a Bunch, turn green, etc. |
4. A caterpillar, or any insect larva, which destroys the buds and leaves of plants; a canker-worm.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 60/2 Cankyr, worme of a tre, teredo. 1578 Banister Hist. Man. i. 6 The eyes of..Betles, Cankers, & such other. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. ii. 3 Some to kill Cankers in the muske rose buds. 1637 Milton Lycidas 45 As killing as the canker to the rose. 1651 Raleigh's Ghost 111 The garden worm commonly called a Canker. 1782 Marshall in Phil. Trans. LXXIII. 217 Among the numerous enemies to which turnips are liable, none have proved more fatal here than the Black Canker (a species of Caterpillar). 1858 J. Martineau Stud. Chr. 103 The prophet [Jonah] was offended..that the canker was sent to destroy his favorite plant. |
† 5. An inferior kind of rose; the dog-rose (
Rosa canina).
Obs. exc. locally.
| 1582 J. Hester Phiorav. Secr. i. xi. 11 The buddes of Cankers or wilde Eglantine. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. iii. 176 To put downe Richard, that sweet louely Rose, And plant this thorne, this Canker Bullingbrooke. 1623 Fletcher Maid of Mill 20 A white rose or a canker. 1846 Sowerby Eng. Bot. (1864) III. 230 The Wild Rose is sometimes called the Canker in various parts of the Country. |
b. A local name for (
a) the common Wild Poppy (
Papaver Rhæas); (
b) the Dandelion (
Leontodon Taraxacum); (
c) a toadstool or other fungus. (Britten &
Holl.)
6. fig. (from senses 1–4) Anything that frets, corrodes, corrupts, or consumes slowly and secretly.
| 1564 Palfreyman in Bauldwin's Mor. Philos. To Rdr., That pestilent and most infectious canker, idlenesse. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. (1877) 105 Three cankers, which..wil eat vp the whole common welth. 1597–8 Bacon Honour & Rep., Ess. (Arb.) 68 Enuie which is the canker of Honour. 1750 Beawes Lex Mercat. (1752) 36 An extravagant Interest..is a sure Canker to their Fortunes. 1863 Kinglake Crimea (1876) I. i. 17 The canker of Byzantian vice. |
7. (See
quot.:
cf. cankered 4.)
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 455 The brains of a Leopard being mingled with a little quantity of the water which is called a Canker, and with a little Jasmine, and so mixed together, doth mitigate the pain or ach of the belly. |
8. Comb., as
canker-bit(ten,
canker-eaten,
canker-hearted,
canker-like,
canker-mouthed,
canker-poisonous,
canker-stomached,
canker-toothed adjs.;
canker-berry, the fruit of the Dog-rose; also the West Indian plant
Solanum bahamense;
canker-bloom, the blossom of the Dog-rose;
canker-blossom, a worm that cankers a blossom, a canker (sense 4); also
fig.;
canker-eat v., to eat away like a canker;
† canker-fly,
app. some kind of caterpillar;
canker-rash, a variety of scarlet fever in which the throat is ulcerated;
canker-rose, (
a) the Dog-rose (
= sense 5); (
b) the wild poppy (
= sense 5 b), ‘from its colour, and from its injuring corn-land’ (
Syd. Soc. Lex.);
cf. Turner's name ‘red corn rose’;
cankerweed, a
dial. name of Ragweed;
† cankerwort, (
a) the Dandelion (
= sense 5 b); (
b) ?
= cancerwort (see
cancer). See also
cankerfret,
cankerworm.
| 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 174 The *Canker Berry. The berries are bitterish and thought to be very serviceable in sore throats. |
| 1605 Shakes. Lear v. iii. 122 My name is lost By Treasons tooth: bare-gnawne and *Canker-bit. 1753 Smollett Ct. Fathom (1784) 187/1 His reputation canker-bitten by the venomous tooth of slander. |
| c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. liv. 5 The *Canker-bloomes have full as deepe a die As the perfumed tincture of the Roses. |
| 1590 ― Mids. N. iii. ii. 282 You iugler, you *canker blossome You theefe of loue. |
| a 1619 Daniel Hist. 222 Those corruptions which Time hath brought forth to fret and *canker-eate [the state]. |
| 1593 Drayton Eclog. x. 81 A leaveless *Canker-eaten Bow. 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4847/4 Her [a mare's] Tongue Canker-eaten. |
| 1653 Walton Angler 98 There be of Flies, Caterpillars, and *Canker flies, and Bear flies. |
| 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. clxvii. 1034 *Cankerhearted against God. |
| 1559 Mirr. Mag. 704 (R.) [Dissimulation] *canker-like devours it to the root. |
| 1820 Hoyle's Games Impr. 434 They [cocks] may..become seam-eyed or *canker-mouthed. |
| 1871 Palgrave Lyr. Poems 47 The *canker-poisonous chains. |
| 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 112 The Wild, or *Canker-Rose, called Cinosbaton. 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. II. 233 Rosa canina (Common Dog-rose)..another of its names, the Canker-Rose. |
| 1607 Lingua iii. ii. in Hazl. Dodsley IX. 388 Those *canker-stomached, spiteful creatures. |
| 1788 Burns Let. Mrs. Dunlop 27 Sept. (Globe) 428 A *canker-toothed, caterpillar critic. |
▪ II. canker, v. (
ˈkæŋkə(r))
[f. prec. n.] 1. trans. To infect or consume with canker.
| 1398–1664 [see cankered 1, 3]. 1750 Johnson Rambl. No. 95 ¶1 To canker the root. |
† b. To corrode, rust, tarnish.
Obs. exc. dial.| c 1420 [see 2]. 1570–1799 [see cankered 2]. |
2. fig. To infect, corrupt; to consume slowly and secretly like a canker.
| a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 4003 God graunte knyghtes rubbe awey the ruste Of covetise, yf it her hertes cankir. 1641 Milton Ch. Discip. ii. (1851) 33 There is no art that hath bin more canker'd in her principles..then the art of policie. 1750 Johnson Rambl. No. 85 ¶11 Cankered by the rust of their own thoughts. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xxvi, No lapse of moons can canker Love. 1875 E. White Life in Christ ii. xi. (1878) 119 A world smitten with a curse which cankers half its blessings. |
3. intr. To become cankered;
† to rust, to grow rusty or tarnished; to fester (
dial.). Also
fig.| 1519 W. Horman Vulg., This latton basen cankeryth, for faulte of occupyeng. 1610 Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 192 As with age, his body ouglier growes, So his minde cankers. a 1626 Bacon Physiol. & Med. Rem. (L.) Silvering will sully and canker more than gilding. 1879 G. Macdonald P. Faber I. vii. 75 It cankers and breeds worms. |