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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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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
-
Despite evidence that the two got along well enough, rumors spread in Vienna after Mozart’s death that Salieri had poisoned him.—
Michael Schulman,
New Yorker,
18 May 2026
-
Boys State team Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss are behind Teenage Wasteland, which revisits the story of a group of teenagers in upstate New York, who in the early 1990s make a film that uncovers a conspiracy that is poisoning their community.—
Mia Galuppo,
HollywoodReporter,
14 May 2026
Noun
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Poor grading is common in both older neighborhoods and newer subdivisions, and many homes in the region have crawl spaces that trap moisture, leading to mold, wood rot and structural damage.—
Ryan Brennan
May 15,
Charlotte Observer,
15 May 2026
-
Finally, upgrade your couch-rot-and-do-nothing sessions with the TCL 75-inch Class Q6 smart TV, and save 22%.—
Juhi Wadia,
PC Magazine,
5 May 2026
Verb
-
At first, the gorgeous ripe berries are evidence of how perfect our planet can be, corrupted only by the selfish impulses of a human race that’s largely uninterested in caring for anything on it when there isn’t a profit to be made.—
Christian Zilko,
IndieWire,
18 May 2026
-
An independent redistricting commission — transparent, balanced and insulated from the very political pressures that have corrupted this process.—
Daryl Campbell,
Sun Sentinel,
6 May 2026
Noun
-
But more than a decade of decay and corruption scandals have created an infrastructure chokepoint.—
Tiisetso Motsoeneng,
semafor.com,
15 May 2026
-
Helium-4 is naturally produced in the mantle through the decay of uranium and thorium, so there’s a lot of it.—
Robin George Andrews,
Scientific American,
14 May 2026
Verb
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More than three decades of Arctic exposure have severely degraded many structures.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
20 May 2026
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High heat causes coatings to degrade faster and shortens the lifespan of the pan dramatically.—
Ryan Brennan,
Kansas City Star,
20 May 2026
Noun
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Jason Collins, who combined with his brother, Jarron, to bring San Fernando Valley high school basketball to an unprecedented level during their days at Harvard-Westlake in the 1990s, died at the age of 47 because of brain cancer.—
Eric Sondheimer,
Los Angeles Times,
18 May 2026
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Individuals over the age of 60, and those with certain medical conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, and organ transplants are at greater risk for serious illness and rarely may progress to permanent neurological damage, coma, and death.—
Adam Harrington,
CBS News,
18 May 2026
Verb
-
Over the course of the next hour, the weather deteriorated rapidly.—
Sacbee.com,
Sacbee.com,
14 May 2026
-
The warning underscores the deteriorating situation in Gaza.—
Tal Shalev,
CNN Money,
14 May 2026
Noun
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But does the vitality mask the squalor or the squalor the vitality?—
SPIN Team,
SPIN,
20 Apr. 2026
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And while these tenants paid their rent month after month, some of them up to $900 a month to live in squalor.—
Nikki DeMentri,
CBS News,
20 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Canker.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/canker. Accessed 21 May. 2026.
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