cankerworm

English

Etymology

From canker +‎ worm.

Noun

cankerworm (plural cankerworms)

  1. Either of two caterpillars, the larvae of geometrid moths, that are destructive to fruit, buds and leaves.
  2. (figuratively) A corrupting or destructive force.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.2:
      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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