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.

---

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

---

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

The common chickadee destroys in twenty-five days more than a hundred thousand eggs of the cankerworm moth, and the chickadee is one of our smallest birds.

From Friends and Helpers by Sarah J. Eddy

The plagues of Egypt as written in the Book of Exodus, furnish an example; as also the incursions of cankerworm, locust, caterpillar and palmerworm recorded elsewhere in Scripture.

From Old Farm Fairies: A Summer Campaign In Brownieland Against King Cobweaver's Pixies by Henry Christopher McCook

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

From Poor Folk by C. J. Hogarth

For the crimson flower of our life is eaten bythe cankerworm of truth,And no hand can gather up the fallen witheredpetals of the rose of youth.

From Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---