ppl. a. Forms: 5 cankerd, 5–7 -cred, 6 -karde, -card, -cerd, -ckerde, -ckered, -ckred, -crid, (Sc. -karit, -kerit, -kerrit, -kcart, -kart, kankyrryt), 6–7 cankard, 6–8 -kred, 7 -cered, 6– cankered. [f. CANKER v. + -ED.]

1

  1.  Ulcerated, gangrened.

2

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xxiv. (1495), 783. Rotyd woundes … cancred other festred.

3

1720.  Welton, Suffer. Son of God, II. xxiv. 654. Old Canker’d Sores.

4

  † 2.  Rusted, corroded; tarnished. Obs. exc. dial.

5

1570.  Levins, Manip., 49. Cankred, ferruginosus.

6

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iv. 72. The canker’d heapes of strange-atchieued Gold.

7

1611.  Bible, Jas. v. 3. Your gold and siluer is cankered, and the rust of them shall bee a witnesse against you, and shall eate your flesh as it were fire.

8

1799.  G. Smith, Laborat., I. 227. The iron … will become cankered.

9

  3.  Of plants: a. Infected with canker. b. Eaten by a cankerworm.

10

c. 1530.  More, De quat. Noviss., Wks. 88/2. The cancred rote of pride.

11

1664.  Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 205. If you find any [Tulips] to be Canker’d.

12

1803.  Ann. Rev., I. 767/1. A new and effectual method of … curing cankered trees.

13

1837.  Hawthorne, Twice-told T. (1851), I. vi. 115. To pine and droop like a cankered rosebud.

14

  † 4.  Infected, polluted; infectious, venomous.

15

1633.  Milton, Arcades, 53. What the … hurtful worm with cankered venom bites.

16

1679.  Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 106. The Colepit waters, especially those they call Canker’d waters, that kill all the fish wherever they fall into the Rivers.

17

  5.  fig. Infected with evil; corrupt, depraved.

18

c. 1440.  York Myst., vii. 97. Here is a cankerd company.

19

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, V. iv. 72. Defend ȝow fra that cankyrit [v.r. kankeyryt] cast.

20

1535.  Coverdale, Susanna 52. O thou olde canckerde carle, that hast vsed thy wickednesse so longe.

21

c. 1555.  Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (1878), 296. Dangerous, pestilent, cankered heresy.

22

1695.  Kennett, Par. Antiq., App. 693. Which may serve to bridle the cancred greediness of worldly minded men to gather riches.

23

1797.  Godwin, Enquirer, I. ii. 9. The … most cankered villain.

24

1857.  H. Reed, Lect. Brit. Poets, VIII. 290. A cankered profligate, case-hardened in sensuality.

25

  6.  fig. Malignant, envious; ill-natured, spiteful; ill-tempered, crabbed. (This and preceding sense were exceedingly frequent in 16th c.)

26

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, V. xi. 12. Rolling in mynd full mony cankarit bloik.

27

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., I. 60. Cruell and crabit, and cankerit of kynd.

28

1555.  Fardle Facions, Pref. 20. Any cankered reprehendour of other mens doynges.

29

1595.  Shaks., John, II. i. 194. A wicked will … A cankred Grandams will!

30

1618.  Stukeley, Petit., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), III. 394. A cancered enemy to God and his Sovereign.

31

1816.  Scott, Antiq., xxv. ‘What ails ye to be cankered, man, wi’ your friends?’

32

1859.  C. Brontë, Shirley, x. 146. The vinegar discourse of a cankered old maid.

33