cankered, ppl. a.
(ˈkæŋkəd)
Forms: 5 cankerd, 5–7 -cred, 6 -karde, -card, -cerd, -ckerde, -ckered, -ckred, -crid, (Sc. -karit, -kerit, -kerrit, -kcart, -kart, kankyrryt), 6–7 cankard, 6–8 -kred, 7 -cered, 6– cankered.
[f. canker v. + -ed.]
1. Ulcerated, gangrened.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xxiv. (1495) 783 Rotyd woundes..cancred other festred. 1720 Welton Suffer. Son of God II. xxiv. 654 Old cankered sores. |
† 2. Rusted, corroded; tarnished. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 49 Cankred, ferruginosus. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. iv. 72 The canker'd heapes of strange-atchieued Gold. 1611 Bible Jas. v. 3 Your gold and siluer is cankered. 1799 G. Smith Laborat. I. 227 The iron..will become cankered. |
3. Of plants: a. Infected with canker. b. Eaten by a cankerworm.
| c 1530 More De quat. Noviss. Wks. 88/2 The cancred rote of pride. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 205 If you find any [Tulips] to be Canker'd. 1803 Ann. Rev. I. 767/1 A new and effectual method of..curing cankered trees. 1837 Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) I. vi. 115 To pine and droop like a cankered rosebud. |
† 4. Infected, polluted; infectious, venomous.
| 1633 Milton Arcades 53 What the..hurtful worm with cankered venom bites. 1679 Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 106 The Colepit waters, especially those they call Canker'd waters, that kill all the fish wherever they fall into the Rivers. |
5. fig. Infected with evil; corrupt, depraved.
| c 1440 York Myst. vii. 97 Here is a cankerd company. 1513 Douglas æneis v. iv. 72 Defend ȝow fra that cankyrit [v.r. kankeyryt] cast. 1535 Coverdale Susanna 52 O thou olde canckerde carle, that hast vsed thy wickednesse so longe. 1555 Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (1878) 296 Dangerous, pestilent, cankered heresy. 1695 Kennett Par. Antiq. App. 693 The cancred greediness of worldly minded men. 1797 Godwin Enquirer i. ii. 9 The..most cankered villain. 1857 H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets viii. 290 A cankered profligate, case-hardened in sensuality. |
6. fig. Malignant, envious; ill-natured, spiteful; ill-tempered, crabbed. (This and preceding sense were exceedingly frequent in 16th c.)
| 1513 Douglas æneis v. xi. 12 Rolling in mynd full mony cankarit bloik. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 60 Cruell and crabit, and cankerit of kynd. 1555 Fardle Facions Pref. 20 Any cankered reprehendour of other mens doynges. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 194 A wicked will..A cankred Grandams will! 1618 Stukeley Petit. in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) III. 394 A cancered enemy to God and his Sovereign. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxv, ‘What ails ye to be cankered, man, wi' your friends?’ 1859 C. Brontë Shirley x 146 The vinegar discourse of a cankered old maid. |