canker

A plant disease marked by gradual decay.

A region of dead plant tissue caused by such a disease.

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

A worm or grub that destroys plant buds or leaves; cankerworm.

loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud[…]

A corroding or sloughing ulcer; especially a spreading gangrenous ulcer or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth.

Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroys.

the cankers of envy and faction

There’s canker at the root, your seed Denies the blessing of the sun, The light essential to your need. Your hopes are murdered and undone.

To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume.

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.

To infect or pollute; to corrupt.

To waste away, grow rusty, or be oxidized, as a mineral.

To be or become diseased, or as if diseased, with canker; to grow corrupt; to become venomous.

as with age his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers.

[…] 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: