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

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, The cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you.

From The Bible Story by Hall, Newton Marshall

Throughout the winter a single chickadee will destroy great numbers of the eggs of the cankerworm moth and of the plant louse.

From Agriculture for Beginners Revised Edition by Burkett, Charles William

The locust and the cankerworm restrain,    The dew that blights and tarnishes the grain, The drought, the nipping winds, the lightning’s glare,    Which to the growing corn pernicious are.

From The Poetry of Wales by Jenkins, John

Her son was not, and her fair daughter was withering before her, as a flower on which the cankerworm had fixed its teeth.

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 14 by Various