cankerworm

American  

[kang-ker-wurm] / ˈkæŋ kərˌwɜrm /

noun

1. an inchworm, the larva of either of two geometrid moths, Paleacrita vernata spring cankerworm and Alsophila pometaria fall cankerworm: a foliage pest of various fruit and shade trees.

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cankerworm British  

/ ˈkæŋkəˌwɜːm /

noun

1. the larva of either of two geometrid moths, Paleacrita vernata or Alsophila pometaria, which feed on and destroy fruit and shade trees in North America

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Etymology

Origin of cankerworm

First recorded in 1520–30; canker + worm

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cankerworm

Chickadees and other winter-resident birds can protect orchards against the cankerworm.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

He spake, and the locust came, And the cankerworm, and that without number, And did eat up every herb in their land, And did eat up the fruit of their ground.

From The Bible Story by Newton Marshall Hall

One naturalist found that four Chickadees had eaten one hundred and five female cankerworm moths.

From The Bird Study Book by Thomas Gilbert Pearson

What the palmer worm had left, the locust had eaten; what the locust had left, the cankerworm had eaten; and what the cankerworm had left, the caterpillar had eaten. 

From The Good News of God by Charles Kingsley

Sickness, like a cankerworm, was gnawing at her life, and dragging her towards the tomb.

From Poor Folk by C. J. Hogarth