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
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
Subdued to Duty’s hard control, I could have borne my wayward lot: The chains that bind this ruined soul Had cankered then, but crushed it not.
From The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume I (of 2) by Marshall, Florence A. Thomas
"The balm of time," replied the gipsy, unmoved, "which, as I know by the experience of many sorrows, can take the venom from the most cankered wound!"
From The Gipsy (Vols I & II) A Tale by James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
And lovely girls, charming, and in Cynthia Walters's case a lily with a cankered calyx.
From Unicorns by Huneker, James
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.
