1616 S. Hieron Doctrines Triall 81 There is no such keeping here meant, as that of the greedy men of the world, in hoarding vp their treasure, euen vntill the cankering and rusting therof.

1662 J. Chandler tr. J. B. van Helmont Oriatrike xxviii. 212 To have feigned yellow Choler, and that a little the more digested, to be adust, and like the cankering of Brasse, and from thence, to be dry, and scorched melancholy or black Choler.

1687 R. L'Estrange Brief Hist. Times I. 17 The Frame of a Political Body, is as Nice, and Delicate, as That of a piece of Clock-work: It will hardly endure, so much as Breathing upon; It must be kept..from Dust, or Cankering, as well as from Falls, and Bruises.

1693 T. P. Blount Nat. Hist. 252 The Old Works, wherein there has been no digging for a long time, no laveing, drawing, or pumping of Water, all which keep the Air in motion, and the Water from Cankering.

1776 T. Harmer Observ. Script. (ed. 2) II. 412 They appear indeed to have been gilt, which must greatly preserve them from cankering.

1835 Catal. Carey & Hart (Philadelphia) 12 in R. Gooch Nuts to Crack All those joyous emotions that so opportunely come to oil the springs of the overworn heart, and prevent the cankering and rust from wearing them away.

1703 tr. H. van Oosten Dutch Gardener ii. lxxix. 119 As soon as they have made Roots you must rake the Ground away again, for fear of Cankering.

1797 J. Bailey & G. Culley Gen. View Agric. Northumberland vii. 67 This downiness makes them retain the dews and moisture upon the ear much longer than the smooth chaffed kinds [of wheat], and probably renders them much more liable to be affected by those diseases which give a dusky dark shade to the chaff, and a rusty cankering upon the straw.

1857 G. W. Johnson Cottage Gardener's Dict. (ed. 2) 168/1 The consequence is, an enlargement of the joints and ossification of the circulatory vessels and other parts—phenomena very analogous to those attending the cankering of trees.

1944 S. D. Garrett Root Dis. Fungi iv. 35 The temperature optimum of 18°C. for stem cankering was connected in some way with the physiology of the parasite rather than with that of the host.

1991 Pract. Gardening Dec. 78/3 We examined the shoots sent, and found some cankering of the wood, caused by the fungus Gibberella moricola.

a1450 (c1395) Prefatory Epist. St. Jerome in Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (New Coll. Oxf.) (1850) 69 Thorouȝ cancrynge rust [a1425 E.V. rust wastynge].

1548 Hall's Vnion: Richard III f. lvj ^v Nether fretyng tynne, nor cancarding obliuion.

1595 Blanchardine & Eglantine sig. K2 His most happy marriage with the beautifull Beautrix, vanishing feare (whose cankering rust had almost consumed his pleasure).

1652 A. Ross Hist. World vi. xx. 474 But in his preparation for Warre, he is arrested by a Cankering Ulcer in his Kidneys, which spreading, putrified his whole body.

1673 T. Monck (title) Cure for the Cankering Errors of the New Eutychians.

1718 tr. S. de Sainte-Marthe Paedotrophiae in tr. C. Quillet Callipaediae (ed. 2) 144 Beneath the Tongue a cank'ring Tumour grows, Which oft with burning, worse than Fev'rish, glows.

1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 196 The rust it had contracted, through the fault of cankering time.

1832 R. Lander & J. Lander Jrnl. Exped. Niger I. i. 32 Cutlasses..half devoured with cankering rust.

1838 R. Southey Inscriptions xxxvii, in Poet. Wks. III. 158 A slow and cankering malady.

1893 J. Rhoades Theresa 80 Where never nipping frost or cankering blight Profanes the flowers, Your little darling blows.

1915 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 20 471 The spread of a cankering commercialism.

1954 W. de la Mare Sel. Poems (1973) 97 Far worse than hunger seems to me The cankering fear of growing old.

1991 A. Knight Quiet Death vi, in Inspector Faro's Casebk: Second Omnibus (1996) 57 One could not help thinking there was some cankering care or secret sorrow gnawing away his peace of mind.