[CANKER sb. 4.]

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  1.  A caterpillar that destroys buds and leaves, a CANKER (sense 4). b. spec. (in U.S.) The larva of the Geometra brumata or winter moth.

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1530.  Palsgr., 202/2. Cancker worme, uer de chancre.

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1611.  Bible, Joel i. 4. That which the locust hath left, hath the canker-worme eaten.

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1634.  Canne, Necess. Separ. (1849), 36. Viperous generation, caterpillars, moths, canker-worms.

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1820.  Scott, Monast., v. Pestilential heresy … as a canker-worm in the rose-garland of the Spouse.

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1841.  Emerson, Lect. Times, Wks. (Bohn), II. 260. The canker-worms have crawled to the topmost bough of the wild elm.

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1863.  Longf., Birds Killingw., 196. From the trees spun down the canker-worms upon the passers-by.

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  2.  fig.

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1580.  in Farr’s S. P. (1845), II. 397. Unto the minde a canker-worme of care.

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1641.  Milton, Ch. Govt., vi. (1851), 121. Must tradition … be the perpetuall canker-worme to eat out Gods commandments?

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1858.  Froude, Hist. Eng., III. xiii. 148. Lies, happily, are canker-worms, and spoil all causes, good or bad, which admit their company.

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