cankered

American  

[kang-kerd] / ˈkæŋ kərd /

adjective

1. morally corrupt.

2. bad-tempered.

3. (of plants)

   1. destroyed or having portions destroyed by the feeding of a cankerworm.

   2. having a cankerous part; infected with a canker.

4. ulcerated.

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Other Word Forms

• cankeredly adverb
• cankeredness noun
• uncankered adjective

Etymology

Origin of cankered

late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; canker, -ed ³

Example Sentences

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

But it is more like a garden than the cankered cat-walk it once was.

From The New Gulliver and Other Stories by Pain, Barry

The world taken 'en masse' is a monster, crammed with prejudices, packed with prepossessions, cankered with what it calls virtues, a Puritan, a prig.

From Miscellaneous Aphorisms; The Soul of Man by Wilde, Oscar

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