Cancer /(?)/

Can·cer

Cancer

n.
  1. A genus of decapod Crustacea, including some of the most common shore crabs of Europe and North America, as the rock crab, Jonah crab, etc. See Crab. (Zool.)
  2. The fourth of the twelve signs of the zodiac. The first point is the northern limit of the sun's course in summer; hence, the sign of the summer solstice. See Tropic. (Astron.)
  3. Formerly, any malignant growth, esp. one attended with great pain and ulceration, with cachexia and progressive emaciation. It was so called, perhaps, from the great veins which surround it, compared by the ancients to the claws of a crab. The term is now restricted to such a growth made up of aggregations of epithelial cells, either without support or embedded in the meshes of a trabecular framework. (Med.)

Phrases & Compounds
Cancer cells
cells once believed to be peculiar to cancers, but now know to be epithelial cells differing in no respect from those found elsewhere in the body, and distinguished only by peculiarity of location and grouping.
Cancer root
the name of several low plants, mostly parasitic on roots, as the beech drops, the squawroot, etc.
Tropic of Cancer
See Tropic.