canker sore
4
3.9
- noun
- /ˈkæŋkər sɔr/
- US
:
úlcera aftosa
- If you do enough of that stuff over a short period of time... ...you get these canker sores on your tongue.
- get canker sores
- canker sores in my mouth
- cause a canker sore
Smart of getting beaten up or like paying people to beat you up because I get bad mouth ulcers, which Americans call canker sores.
- Smart of getting beaten up or like paying people to beat you up because I get bad mouth ulcers, which Americans call canker sores.
Examples
-
When I was younger, I used to get what I believe to be canker sores a lot.
Blog text (17) -
Possibly it's a canker sore in your cheek!
Fiction book (1998) -
Yeah, I got a canker sore in the back of my mouth.
-
We drove five and a half hours for this canker sore?
-
We would eat them until they gave us canker sores.
Fiction book (2001) -
- Side effects include swollen tongue, dry mouth and pus-filled canker sores.
-
I have a canker sore on my lip, and it hurts every time I eat.
-
Many people experience a canker sore after eating acidic foods like oranges.
-
To relieve the pain of a canker sore, rinsing your mouth with salt water may help.
Synonyms
81
3.7
A painful sore on the skin or inside the body that can make pus
5
8.8
A small painful sore inside the mouth or on the lip
1
7.0
An open sore on the skin or in the mouth that hurts and often looks red
A small painful sore inside the mouth or on the lip, like a canker sore
A small, painful sore or blister inside the mouth often white
Antonyms
How Painful
Surface Forms
Morphology
Both constituents directly contribute to the meaning: 'canker' denotes a painful ulcer and 'sore' denotes a lesion, so together they name a specific type of painful mouth ulcer. This noun‑noun composition is compositional and follows regular English patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words would be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Canker sore comes from an old word canker that meant a small sore that seemed to 'eat away' the flesh, and sore means a 'painful spot'. So today canker sore names a small, painful sore inside the mouth.