[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To infect or consume with canker.
1398–1664. [see CANKERED 1, 3].
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 95, ¶ 1. To canker the root.
† b. To corrode, rust, tarnish. Obs. exc. dial.
c. 1420. [see 2].
1570–1799. [see CANKERED 2].
2. fig. To infect, corrupt; to consume slowly and secretly like a canker.
a. 1420. Occleve, De Reg. Princ., 4003. God graunte knyghtes rubbe awey the ruste Of covetise, yf it her hertes cankir.
1641. Milton, Ch. Discip., II. (1851), 33. There is no art that hath bin more canker’d in her principles … then the art of policie.
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 85, ¶ 11. Cankered by the rust of their own thoughts.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., xxvi. No lapse of moons can canker Love.
1875. E. White, Life in Christ, II. xi. (1878), 119. A world smitten with a curse which cankers half its blessings.
3. intr. To become cankered; † to rust, to grow rusty or tarnished; to fester (dial.). Also fig.
1519. Horman, Vulg. This latton basen cankeryth, for faulte of occupyeng.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 192. As with age, his body ouglier growes, So his minde cankers.
a. 1626. Bacon, Physiol. & Med. Rem. (L.). Silvering will sully and canker more than gilding.
1879. G. Macdonald, P. Faber, I. vii. 75. It cankers and breeds worms.
