canker

Meanings

1. A plant disease marked by gradual decay.
2. A region of dead plant tissue caused by such a disease.
3. A worm or grub that destroys plant buds or leaves; cankerworm.
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.
6. A kind of wild rose; the dog rose.
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.
9. A crab.

1. To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume.
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.

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.