as in to poison
to lower in character, dignity, or quality
such shameless ambulance chasing cankers the legal profession
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in rot
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of canker
Tim Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 1 Aug. 2019
Sally Jenkins, The Atlantic, 18 Dec. 2025
Fungal disease, butternut canker, wiped out about 90% of the state's butternut trees.
—Jenna Prestininzi, Freep.com, 9 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for canker
Verb
Start by removing all blighted twigs and cankered branches 6 to 10 inches below the edge of visible infection.
—Tim Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 1 Aug. 2019
Noun
Even the most superb body begins to diminish in a person’s early 30s, thanks to the onset of sarcopenia, which sounds like a canker but means the incremental decline of muscle mass.
—Sally Jenkins, The Atlantic, 18 Dec. 2025
Fungal disease, butternut canker, wiped out about 90% of the state's butternut trees.
—Jenna Prestininzi, Freep.com, 9 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for canker
Recent Examples of Synonyms for canker
Verb
-
Turns out, Chris lied about touching a stone mid-play and has quietly poisoned every victory and memory the team has enjoyed since.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
20 Feb. 2026
-
Boundaries protect quality of output and prevent resentment from poisoning relationships.—
Tarot.com,
Baltimore Sun,
19 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
The files have become yet another data point suggesting a deep rot inside of many American institutions.—
Charlie Warzel,
The Atlantic,
14 Feb. 2026
-
The league needed to know how deep the rot went.—
Joe Vardon,
New York Times,
13 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
But, if the release of the Epstein files has accomplished anything, it’s been to demonstrate how, on both sides of the Atlantic, systems corrupted by money are ripe for reform.—
John Cassidy,
New Yorker,
16 Feb. 2026
-
American culture will not be mocked or corrupted without consequence.—
Raechal Shewfelt,
Entertainment Weekly,
11 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
In that respect, Wolfram is a masterful merger of merger of serious social comment and taut, thrilling action, a film where base human cruelty is always somewhere on the horizon, a film that simply reeks of death and decay (there are more flies than Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia).—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
17 Feb. 2026
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Where analysts differ is on what those changes ultimately represent — whether a pragmatic path toward recovery, an incomplete liberalization constrained by PDVSA’s institutional decay, or a historic surrender of oil sovereignty under foreign oversight.—
Antonio María Delgado,
Miami Herald,
17 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
In many cases submitted to Othram, the main challenge can be having to rely solely on significantly old remains, as in Ritchie’s case, or other pieces of evidence that have degraded over time, Othram’s CEO David Mittelman told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.—
Angie DiMichele,
Sun Sentinel,
16 Feb. 2026
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Cement and steel degrade and corrode over time (especially when underground and in constant contact with saltwater).—
Eleanor Dearman,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
14 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Ellen Rudolph’s home was damaged in the Palisades fire and then her husband died of cancer.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
17 Feb. 2026
-
The teenager was undergoing cancer treatment and had been home visiting her family for the weekend when her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was arrested in October 2025 at a Home Depot store in suburban Chicago, a GoFundMe page set up for the family states.—
Thao Nguyen,
USA Today,
16 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
As her vision deteriorates, Penny turns to psychoanalysis not in hopes of reversing her condition, but to confront years of denial and silence.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
19 Feb. 2026
-
Common findings from sewer scopes include root intrusion at joints (especially common in clay pipes), belly or sag in the line where water pools, cracked or offset joints, and deteriorated Orangeburg sections.—
Allison Palmer
Updated February 19,
Kansas City Star,
19 Feb. 2026
Noun
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After its seemingly benign opening, the movie captures the appalling conditions under which the inmates are kept, with unblinking scenes of bullying, force feeding, strip searches and squalor.—
Chloe Veltman,
NPR,
16 Feb. 2026
-
Many came from grinding poverty and squalor.—
Alexandra Schwartz,
New Yorker,
9 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Canker.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/canker. Accessed 23 Feb. 2026.
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