Crossword clues for canker
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
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.]
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.
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Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroy.
The cankers of envy and faction.
--Temple. (Hort.) A disease incident to trees, causing the bark to rot and fall off.
(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.
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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.
Canker \Can"ker\ (k[a^][ng]"k[~e]r), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cankered (-k[~e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Cankering.]
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To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume.
No lapse of moons can canker Love.
--Tennyson. -
To infect or pollute; to corrupt.
--Addison.A tithe purloined cankers the whole estate.
--Herbert.
Canker \Can"ker\, v. i.
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To waste away, grow rusty, or be oxidized, as a mineral.
Silvering will sully and canker more than gliding.
--Bacom. -
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.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late Old English cancer "spreading ulcer, cancerous tumor," from Latin cancer "malignant tumor," literally "crab" (see cancer); influenced in Middle English by Old North French cancre "canker, sore, abscess" (Old French chancre, Modern French chancre). The word was the common one for "cancer" until c.1700. Also used since 15c. of caterpillars and insect larvae that eat plant buds and leaves. As a verb from late 14c. Related: Cankered; cankerous. Canker blossom is recorded from 1580s.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context botany English) A plant disease marked by gradual decay. 2 A corrode or sloughing ulcer; especially a spreading gangrenous ulcer or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth. 3 Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroys. 4 A kind of wild rose; the dog rose. 5 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. 6 An avian disease affecting doves, poultry, parrots and birds of prey, caused by ''Trichomonas gallinae''. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume. 2 (context transitive English) To infect or pollute; to corrupt. 3 (context intransitive English) To waste away, grow rusty, or be oxidized, as a mineral. 4 To be or become diseased, or as if diseased, with canker; to grow corrupt; to become venomous.
WordNet
n. an ulceration (especially of the lips or lining of the mouth)
v. become infected with a canker
infect with a canker
Wikipedia
Canker and anthracnose generally refer to many different plant diseases of such broadly similar symptoms as the appearance of small areas of dead tissue, which grow slowly, often over years. Some are of only minor consequence, but others are ultimately lethal and therefore of major economic importance in agriculture and horticulture. Their causes include such a wide range of organisms as fungi, bacteria, mycoplasmas and viruses. The majority of canker-causing organisms are bound to a unique host species or genus, but a few will attack other plants. Weather and animals can spread canker, thereby endangering areas that have only slight amount of canker.
Although fungicides or bactericides can treat some cankers, often the only available treatment is to destroy the infected plant to contain the disease.
Usage examples of "canker".
England mortally cankered with social discontent were not grounded in a surprising familiarity with backstairs morale.
If Bradford-on-Avon really was the secret heart of the world, then Blackacre was the hidden canker in that heart.
He does not need to try perilous experiments with his own soul in order to make sure that lust defiles, that avarice hardens, that frivolity empties, that selfishness cankers the heart.
Whilst the cold hand gathers its scanty fruit, Whose chillness struck a canker to its root.
Below it the Canker flowed through the city, its barges and pleasure boats little grubs of dirty light on the blackness.
Life is full of numbness and of balk, Of haltingness and baffled short-coming, Of promise unfulfilled, of everything That is puffed vanity and empty talk: Its very bud hangs cankered on the stalk, Its very song-bird trails a broken wing, Its very Spring is not indeed like Spring, But sighs like Autumn round an aimless walk.
As it would have cankered his soul to feel that he was being beaten out of a half-dozen rations by the superior cunning of the Yankees, he adopted a plan which he must have learned at some period of his life when he was a hog or sheep drover.
Across the Canker, the Ribs jutted over the roofs of Bonetown like a clutch of vast tusks curling hundreds of feet into the air.
Gilbert sat his horse with ill-disguised bad temper, Gautier was tense and anxious, and Duke Roland of Aldeni shifted uncomfortably, trying to ease the canker in his belly.
Perhaps he has a canker in his soul that eats away at his peace of mind.
She had suffered from canker, indigestion, and diarrhoea for a year previous to her delivery.
Misery is caused for the most part, not by a heavy crush of disaster, but by the corrosion of less visible evils, which canker enjoyment, and undermine security.
The disgrace of medicine has been that colossal system of self-deception, in obedience to which mines have been emptied of their cankering minerals, the vegetable kingdom robbed of all its noxious growths, the entrails of animals taxed for their impurities, the poison-bags of reptiles drained of their venom, and all the inconceivable abominations thus obtained thrust down the throats of human beings suffering from some fault of organization, nourishment, or vital stimulation.
His unfailing courage and good sense won fights that the incompetency or cankering jealousy of commanders had lost.
She could not quite make up her mind to touch the feverish bills with the cankering coppers in them, and left them airing themselves on the table.