a. [Formed on the normal L. type *cancrīnus, f. cancer: see -INE.] Having the qualities of a crab; crab-like. Cancrine (or palindromic) verse: ‘(Latin) verses which are the same, read either forwards or backwards, as Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor’ (Bailey).
1755. in Johnson.
1846. R. Hart, Eccl. Records, 245. At Hingham Church in Norfolk there is a curious cancrine inscription over the font.
