Can"ker (kă&nsm;"k&etilde;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.]
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.
Shak.
Black canker. See under
Black.
Can"ker (kă&nsm;"k&etilde;r), v.
t. [imp. & p. p. Cankered (-
k&etilde;rd); 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, v. 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.
Shak.
