a. Also 4– cankry. [f. CANKER sb. + -Y1.]
† 1. Of the nature of a canker; gangrenous. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. lix. (1495), 274. Noli me tangere is a cankry postume in the face.
2. Affected with CANKER.
1674. R. Godfrey, Inj. & Ab. Physic, 79. Others [seem’d to be] Cankery or Black-Chollery.
† b. Rusty; affected as if with rust. Obs.
1744. Wogan, in J. Burton, Genuineness Clarendon’s Hist., 140. The ink being turned brown and cankry.
c. Of trees.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 136. Cut off as much as you can of the Cankry Boughs.
1802. W. Forsyth, Fruit Trees, vii. (1824), 185. Finding the pear-trees in Kensington gardens in a very cankery, and unfruitful state.
3. fig. Cankerous; ill-humored, crabbed. Sc.
1786. Burns, Ep. Major Logan, iv. Cankrie care.
1791. A. Wilson, Eppie & Deil, Poet. Wks. (1846), 85. Right cankry to hersel’ she cracket. Ibid., Poems (1816), 40 (Jam.). The cankriest then was kittled up to daffing.
