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.
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 (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.
Hear it pronounced