A swelling of the ankle and lower calf so as to obliterate the
normal tapered boundary between the
two. While it may be simply be deposition of adipose tissue (fat), or even excessive standing, in some cases the cankle may represent a symptom of kidney disease or even congestive heart
failure, in that the swelling could be caused by excessive fluid retention in the lower
leg which the failing
heart is unable to pump uphill or the kidneys are unable to excrete into the urine.
While the term is ordinarily used in a sexist manner to insult a woman's beauty, cankles may represent more than a mere cosmetic problem, but actually a dangerous situation calling for evfaluation by a physician.
The middle-aged woman was so ashamed of her
cankle(s) that she had long worn long dresses to obscure them but, later, only after she had been hospitalized with severe kidney and heart disease, did her family realize that the
cankle(s) were an
early sign of her illness.