Can"ker (?), 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.
© Webster 1913.
Can"ker (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cankered (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Cankering.]
1.
To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consune.
No lapse of moons can canker Love.
Tennyson.
2.
To infect or pollute; to corrupt.
Addison.
A tithe purloined canker the whole estate.
Herbert.
© Webster 1913.
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.
© Webster 1913.