cankered
Americanadjective
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morally corrupt.
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(of plants)
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destroyed or having portions destroyed by the feeding of a cankerworm.
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having a cankerous part; infected with a canker.
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of cankered
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; see origin at canker, -ed 3
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He has suffered for it: his health debilitated by frequent hunger strikes, his knees cankered with sores from long sessions of prayer, according to prison officials.
From Time • Jul. 28, 2010
Hamlet paused before coming to his point “I wish to discover whether a surgeon, by cutting out the cankered spot, could restore the vital spirit to perfection.”
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
He chose to retire from business, visited Watley, and habits of miserliness growing rapidly upon his cankered mind, never afterward removed from the lodgings he had hired on first arriving there.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 15, August, 1851 by Various
Come, Gemmel, lad, it is o' nae use to be in a cankered humour for ever.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 7 by Various
He was a tailor in the Parish of Crail, famous for fish and herrings—a real cankered body, but with about an equal quantity of humour or malevolent wit.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 13 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
