cankerworm

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

From canker +‎ worm.

Noun[edit]

cankerworm (plural cankerworms)

  1. Either of two caterpillars, the larvae of geometrid moths, that are destructive to fruit, buds and leaves.
  2. (figurative) A corrupting or destructive force.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
      O cursed Eld the cankerworme of writs, / How may these rimes, so rude as doth appeare, / Hope to endure, sith workes of heauenly wits / Are quite deuourd, and brought to nought by little bits?
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