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cankerworm

[ kang-ker-wurm ]

noun

  1. an inchworm, the larva of either of two geometrid moths, Paleacrita vernata spring cankerworm and Alsophila pometaria fall cankerworm: a foliage pest of various fruit and shade trees.


cankerworm

/ ˈkæŋkəˌwɜːm /

noun

  1. the larva of either of two geometrid moths, Paleacrita vernata or Alsophila pometaria, which feed on and destroy fruit and shade trees in North America
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of cankerworm1

First recorded in 1520–30; canker + worm
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Example Sentences

The stomachs of four other birds of the same species contained about 600 eggs and 105 female moths of the cankerworm.

The cankerworm stood at his right hand, and of all his richest, most precious work, there remains only the shadow.

One naturalist found that four Chickadees had eaten one hundred and five female cankerworm moths.

This gives a total of nearly twenty thousand cankerworm moth eggs destroyed by four birds in a few minutes.

Then surely would the years eaten by the cankerworm be given back!

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