Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CANK'ER, n. [L. cancer; Sax. cancere or cancre; D. kanker; Fr. chancre; It. canchero. This is the Latin cancer, with the Roman pronunciation. See Cancer.]

1. A disease incident to trees, which causes the bark to rot and fall.
2. A popular name of certain small eroding ulcers in the mouth, particularly of children. They are generally covered with a whitish slough. – Cyc.
3. A virulent, corroding ulcer; or any thing that corrodes, corrupts or destroys. Sacrilege may prove an eating canker. – Atterbury. And their word will eat as doth a canker. – 2 Tim. ii.
4. An eating, corroding, virulent humor; corrosion. – Shak.
5. A kind of rose, the dog-rose. – Peacham. Shak.
6. In farriery, a running thrush of the worst kind; a disease in horses' feet, discharging a fetid matter from the cleft in the middle of the frog. – Encyc.