Etymology From Middle English canker, cancre, from Old English cancer (“cancer; crab”), 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.
A region of dead plant tissue caused by such a disease.
Slightly sunken brown cankers of variable size and shape affect stem parts primarily below the soil line.1977, The Potato: Major Diseases and Nematodes, International Potato Center, page 46:
3
A worm or grub that destroys plant buds or leaves; cankerworm.
loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud[…]1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 35”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
4
A corroding or sloughing ulcer; especially a spreading gangrenous ulcer or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth.
5
Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroys.
the canker of destitution and violence.
the cankers of envy and factionc. 1690, Sir William Temple, Of Heroick Virtue:
1 more example
There’s canker at the root, your seed Denies the blessing of the sun, The light essential to your need. Your hopes are murdered and undone.1941, Theodore Roethke, “Feud”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC, page 4:
6
A kind of wild rose; the dog rose.
To put down Richard, that ſweet louely Roſe, And plant this thorne, this canker Bullingbrooke?c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], signature [B.iv.], recto:
7
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.
8
An avian disease affecting doves, poultry, parrots and birds of prey, caused by Trichomonas gallinae.
This Caſtoꝛ liueth by water and lande, he loueth to feede vpon Crabbes and Cankers of the Sea.1562, Williyam Bulleyn [i.e., William Bullein], “The Booke of Simples”, in Bulleins Bulwarke of Defẽce againste All Sicknes, Sornes, and Woundes, That Dooe Daily Assaulte Mankinde, […], London: […] Ihon Kyngston, →OCLC, folio lxxx, verso:
It is this power of active motion which has obtained it a local name in the West of Cornwall, where, as crabs in general are termed "cankers," this species is distinguished by the name of "flying canker."1856, The Zoologist, volumes 14-15, page 5616:
Synonyms
water canker, canker of the mouth, noma, avian trichomoniasis, roup, frounce
Etymology From Middle English cankren, from the noun (see above).
1
To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume.
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.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXVI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 43:
2
To infect or pollute; to corrupt.
3
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.
as with age his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
[…] 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:1972, E. M. Forster, chapter 36, in Maurice, Penguin, page 156: