different between canker vs wear

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kæ?k?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæ?k?/
• Rhymes: -æ?k?(?)
• Hyphenation: can?ker

Etymology 1

From Middle English canker, cancre, from Old English cancer, akin to Dutch kanker, Old High German chanchar. Ultimately from Latin cancer (“a cancer”). Doublet of cancer, a later borrowing from Latin, and chancre, which came through French.

Noun

canker (countable and uncountable, plural cankers)

1. (phytopathology) A plant disease marked by gradual decay.
2. A region of dead plant tissue caused by such a disease.
   • 1977, The Potato: Major Diseases and Nematodes, International Potato Center, page 46:

     Slightly sunken brown cankers of variable size and shape affect stem parts primarily below the soil line.

3. A worm or grub that destroys plant buds or leaves; cankerworm.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 35:

     loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud ...

4. A corroding or sloughing ulcer; especially a spreading gangrenous ulcer or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth.
5. Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroys.
   • c. 1690', Sir William Temple, Of Heroick Virtue

     the cankers of envy and faction

6. A kind of wild rose; the dog rose.
   • ca. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act I, sc. 3:

     To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,

     An plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?

7. An obstinate and often incurable disease of a horse's foot, characterized by separation of the horny portion and the development of fungoid growths. Usually resulting from neglected thrush.
8. An avian disease affecting doves, poultry, parrots and birds of prey, caused by Trichomonas gallinae.

Synonyms

• (ulcer, especially of the mouth): water canker, canker of the mouth, noma
• (bird disease): avian trichomoniasis, roup
• (hawk disease): frounce

Related terms

• chancre

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English cankren, from the noun (see above).

Verb

canker (third-person singular simple present cankers, present participle cankering, simple past and past participle cankered)

1. (transitive) To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume.
   • 1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, 26:

     Still onward winds the dreary way; / I with it; for I long to prove / No lapse of moons can canker Love, / Whatever fickle tongues may say.

2. (transitive) To infect or pollute; to corrupt.
3. (intransitive) To waste away, grow rusty, or be oxidized, as a mineral.
4. (intransitive) To be or become diseased, or as if diseased, with canker; to grow corrupt; to become venomous.
   • 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act IV, sc. 1:

     as with age his body uglier grows,

     So his mind cankers.

   • 1971, E. M. Forster, Maurice, Penguin, 1972, Chapter 36, p. 156,^[1]

     […] the road, always in bad condition, was edged with dog roses that scratched the paint. Blossom after blossom crept past them, draggled by the ungenial year: some had cankered, others would never unfold:

References

• canker in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Neckar, nacker

Scots

Alternative forms

• cancre, cankyr, kanker

Etymology

Middle English canker, cancre, Old English cancer, akin to Dutch kanker, Old High German chanchar. From Latin cancer (“a cancer”).

Pronunciation

• (Southern Scots) IPA^(key): /?k????k?r/

Noun

canker (plural cankers)

1. Bad temper.

Verb

canker (third-person singular present cankers, present participle cankerin, past cankert, past participle cankert)

1. (archaic) To become bad-tempered, to fret, to worry.

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English weren, werien, from Old English werian (“to clothe, cover over; put on, wear, use; stock (land)”), from Proto-West Germanic *wa?jan, from Proto-Germanic *wazjan? (“to clothe”), from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to dress, put on (clothes)”).

Cognate to Sanskrit ????? (váste), Ancient Greek ?????? (hénnumi, “put on”), Latin vestis (“garment”) (English vest), Albanian vesh (“dress up, wear”), Tocharian B wäs-, Old Armenian ??????? (zgenum), Welsh gwisgo, Hittite ????????- (waš-).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w??/
• (General American) enPR: w?r, IPA^(key): /w??(?)/, [w??], [w??]
• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Homophones: ware, where (in accents with the wine-whine merger), were (some dialects)

Verb

wear (third-person singular simple present wears, present participle wearing, simple past wore, past participle worn or (now colloquial and nonstandard) wore)

1. To carry or have equipped on or about one's body, as an item of clothing, equipment, decoration, etc.

   • It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.
2. To have or carry on one's person habitually, consistently; or, to maintain in a particular fashion or manner.
3. To bear or display in one's aspect or appearance.

4. (colloquial, with "it") To overcome one's reluctance and endure a (previously specified) situation.

5. To eat away at, erode, diminish, or consume gradually; to cause a gradual deterioration in; to produce (some change) through attrition, exposure, or constant use.

6. (intransitive, copulative) To undergo gradual deterioration; become impaired; be reduced or consumed gradually due to any continued process, activity, or use.
   • 1880, Benjamin Disraeli, Endymion

     The family that had raised it wore out in the earlier part of this century

7. To exhaust, fatigue, expend, or weary.

   His neverending criticism has finally worn my patience.? Toil and care soon wear the spirit.? Our physical advantage allowed us to wear the other team out and win.

8. (intransitive) To last or remain durable under hard use or over time; to retain usefulness, value, or desirable qualities under any continued strain or long period of time; sometimes said of a person, regarding the quality of being easy or difficult to tolerate.

9. (intransitive, colloquial) (in the phrase "wearing on (someone)") To cause annoyance, irritation, fatigue, or weariness near the point of an exhaustion of patience.

10. (intransitive, of time) To pass slowly, gradually or tediously.
11. (nautical) To bring (a sailing vessel) onto the other tack by bringing the wind around the stern (as opposed to tacking when the wind is brought around the bow); to come round on another tack by turning away from the wind. Also written "ware". Past: weared, or wore/worn.

    Synonym: gybe

Derived terms

Related terms

• vest

Translations

See also

• don
• put on

Noun

wear (uncountable)

1. (uncountable) (in combination) clothing

   footwear; outdoor wear; maternity wear

2. (uncountable) damage to the appearance and/or strength of an item caused by use over time
   • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X

     Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing.

3. (uncountable) fashion

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:wear.

Related terms

• wear and tear

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English weren, werien, from Old English werian (“to guard, keep, defend; ward off, hinder, prevent, forbid; restrain; occupy, inhabit; dam up; discharge obligations on (land)”), from Proto-West Germanic *warjan, from Proto-Germanic *warjan? (“to defend, protect, ward off”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to close, cover, protect, save, defend”).

Cognate with Scots wer, weir (“to defend, protect”), Dutch weren (“to aver, ward off”), German wehren (“to fight”), Swedish värja (“to defend, ward off”), Icelandic verja (“to defend”).

Alternative forms

• wer, weir (Scotland)

Verb

wear (third-person singular simple present wears, present participle wearing, simple past weared or wore, past participle weared or worn)

1. (now chiefly Britain dialectal, transitive) To guard; watch; keep watch, especially from entry or invasion.
2. (now chiefly Britain dialectal, transitive) To defend; protect.
3. (now chiefly Britain dialectal, transitive) To ward off; prevent from approaching or entering; drive off; repel.

   to wear the wolf from the sheep

4. (now chiefly Britain dialectal, transitive) To conduct or guide with care or caution, as into a fold or place of safety.

Etymology 3

Noun

wear (plural wears)

1. Dated form of weir.

Anagrams

• -ware, Awre, Ware, arew, ware