canker

American  

[kang-ker] / ˈkæŋ kər /

noun

• cankers
  plural

1. a gangrenous or ulcerous sore, especially in the mouth.

2. a disease affecting horses' feet, usually the soles, characterized by a foul-smelling exudate.

3. a defined area of diseased tissue, especially in woody stems.

4. something that corrodes, corrupts, destroys, or irritates.

   Synonyms:

   scourge, cancer, blight

5. Also called canker rose. British Dialect. dog rose.

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verb (used with object)

1. to infect with canker.

2. to corrupt; destroy slowly.

verb (used without object)

1. to become infected with or as if with canker.

canker British  

/ ˈkæŋkə /

noun

1. an ulceration, esp of the lips or lining of the oral cavity

2. vet science

   1. a disease of horses in which the horn of the hoofs becomes soft and spongy

   2. an inflammation of the lining of the external ear, esp in dogs and cats, resulting in a discharge and sometimes ulceration

   3. ulceration or abscess of the mouth, eyelids, ears, or cloaca of birds

3. an open wound in the stem of a tree or shrub, caused by injury or parasites

4. something evil that spreads and corrupts

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verb

1. to infect or become infected with or as if with canker

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cankers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of canker

before 1000; Middle English; Old English cancer < Latin cancer; see cancer

Explanation

A canker is a kind of sore. Some people are prone to getting cankers on their mouths. Canker can also refer to anything that is terrible and difficult to get rid of. Your parents might complain that the abandoned, run-down house two blocks away is a canker on your neighborhood. In medicine, cankers are ulcers that are difficult to treat (the word is closely related to cancer). In agriculture, canker refers to a fungal disease that attacks the bark of trees. If one kid in your class misbehaves, and everyone suddenly follows his lead, that kid could be described (by your teachers) as a canker.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

canker cankers

Smith and Hume did not agree on every economic proposition, but they independently condemned the canker of the public debt.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

There was citrus canker, caused by a bacterium that had plagued citrus for years prior to the arrival of greening.*

From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026

As humans, we are nothing if not fascinated by our own bodies, whether that’s picking a scab, prodding a canker sore or popping a pimple.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2024

“There is a canker that Miss Havisham has allowed, welcomed even, in her heartbreak and desire for revenge.”

From New York Times ● Mar. 24, 2023

Jesse’s feelings about Leslie’s father poked up like a canker sore.

From "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson

For example, chemicals in the Chinese trees’ bark counter the acid cankers by creating a sort of scab around the injury.

From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2023

Discuss diseases and insect pests common to roses grown in the maritime Pacific Northwest, including black spot, rust, cercospora leaf spot, powdery mildew, crown gall, cankers, rose mosaic virus and more via Zoom 6:30-8:15 p.m.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 9, 2022

Fire blight, a bacterial disease that can cause weeping cankers on pear-tree trunks, generally responds to antibiotics, but the drugs can stop working if over-used.

From Nature ● Mar. 13, 2017

He was curled up in a ball in pain, with bloody diarrhoea, a fever, cankers in his mouth, a rash on his face and boils on his legs.

From BBC ● May 26, 2014

In 1904, a keeper at the Bronx Zoo in New York noticed that the zoo’s handsome chestnuts had become covered in small orange cankers of an unfamiliar type.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

Related Words

• blight
• corrosion
• scourge