Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various bivalve mollusks of the family Cardiidae, having rounded or heart-shaped shells with radiating ribs.
- n. The shell of a cockle.
- n. A wrinkle; a pucker.
- n. Nautical A cockleshell.
- v. To become or cause to become wrinkled or puckered.
- idiom. cockles of (one's) heart One's innermost feelings: The valentine warmed the cockles of my heart.
- n. Any of several weedy plants, especially the corn cockle.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Darnel, Lolium temulentum; rye-grass, L. perenne; tare; a weed generally.
- n. The corn-rose or corn-cockle, Lychnis (Agrostemma) Githago.
- n. A mollusk of the family Cardiidæ and genus Cardium; especially, the common edible species of Europe, Cardium edule; the shell of such mollusks.
- n. An equivalve bivalve, resembling or related to mollusks of the genus Cardium. A bivalve mollusk of the family Myidæ, Mya truncata: so called in the Hebrides; more fully called
lady-cockle . - n. A univalve mollusk of the family Muricidæ; the murex or purple-fish.
- n. A ringlet or crimp.
- n. [See cockle, verb] The instrument used in cockling the cogs of a mill.
- n. Same as cockle, 2 .
- n. To be hanged: from the noise made while strangling.
- To pucker or contract into wrinkles, as cloth or glass.
- To rise into frequent ridges, as the waves of a chopping sea.
- To make a slight score on the cogs or teeth of a mill, as a guide for cutting off their ends, so that the whole may be given a truly circular form.
- To cause to pucker in wrinkles: as, rain will cockle silk.
- n. The body or fire-chamber of an air-stove, usually made of fire-brick.
- n. A kind of kiln or stove for drying hops.
- n. In porcelain manufacturing, a large stove used for drying biscuit-ware which has been dipped in glaze, preparatory to burning.
- n. A young cock; a cockerel.
- To cry like a cock.
- n. An Australian bivalve mollusk, Cardium tenuicostatum; also, a member of the genus Chione.
- n. A small crisp confection of sugar stiffened with flour, variously flavored, and of a pink, light-yellow, or white color. Mottoes were printed on them in red letters.
- n. A pucker or wrinkle; an unevenness, as in cloth or glass.
- n. A disease of wheat caused by a nematoid worm, Telenchus tritici, which infests the grain and causes it to become deformed.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of various edible European bivalve mollusks, of the family Cardiidae, having heart-shaped shells.
- n. The shell of such cockle.
- n. One’s innermost feelings (only in the expression “the cockles of one’s heart”).
- n. A wrinkle, pucker
- n. hence A defect in sheepskin; firm dark nodules caused by the bites of keds on live sheep
- n. Any of several field weeds, such as the corn cockle
- v. To wrinkle, pucker
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A bivalve mollusk, with radiating ribs, of the genus Cardium, especially Cardium edule, used in Europe for food; -- sometimes applied to similar shells of other genera.
- n. A cockleshell.
- n. The mineral black tourmaline or schorl; -- so called by the Cornish miners.
- n. The fire chamber of a furnace.
- n. A hop-drying kiln; an oast.
- n. The dome of a heating furnace.
- v. To cause to contract into wrinkles or ridges, as some kinds of cloth after a wetting.
- n. A plant or weed that grows among grain; the corn rose (Luchnis Githage).
- n. The Lotium, or darnel.
WordNet 3.0
- v. to gather something into small wrinkles or folds
- n. common edible European bivalve
- n. common edible, burrowing European bivalve mollusk that has a strong, rounded shell with radiating ribs
- v. stir up (water) so as to form ripples
Etymologies
- Middle English cokel, from Old French coquille, shell, from Vulgar Latin *cochillia, from Latin conchyllium, from Greek konkhulion, diminutive of konkhē, mussel.Middle English cokkel, from Old English coccel, from Medieval Latin *cocculus, diminutive of Latin coccus, kermes berry, from Greek kokkos.
Examples
“Or has it been an accident that a nation which loved the sea and counted everything that floated human, sent its sons faring forth in cockle-shells to a land when there were still great spaces to be occupied?”
“And the cockle are the children of the wicked one.”
The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 47: Matthew The Challoner Revision
“There are plants called cockle-burs whose seed-pods are provided with stickers in every direction, so that anything brushing against them is sure to pick them up.”
“And I shall call the cockle-shells papa, for they are the biggest and strongest; and the dingle-bells shall be brother Hobart, and the cowslips brother”
“It took the opening credits of Roger Vadim's 1968 sci-fi send-up Barbarella -- a naked Jane Fonda floating in space to the accompaniment of the oh-so-'60s theme song "Barbarella, psychedella/There's a kind of cockle shell about you" -- to convince us otherwise.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Sigman: Memories of a Great Friend
“It took the opening credits of Roger Vadim's 1968 sci-fi send-up Barbarella -- a naked Jane Fonda floating in space to the accompaniment of the oh-so-'60s theme song "Barbarella, psychedella /There's a kind of cockle shell about you" -- to convince us otherwise.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Sigman: Memories of a Great Friend
“Here's a story that will warm the cockles of your heart (what is a "cockle," anyway?).”
“The fish are taken by hand-lining with "cockle" bait or by”
“Testament we have "cockle", for which compare Job, xxxi, 40: "Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley.”
“Originally called "motto hearts," their precursor was a trendy fortune cookie-like treat sold during the Civil War called a "cockle," which had printed phrases rolled up inside its scallop-shaped shell.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cockle’.
-
Cocks, dicks, etc.
Also see End in -ock (this list syntax doesn't seem to work).
cockle, cockleshell, cock, spatchcock, cockeye, cockeyed, cocklemaney, cockerel, cockcrow, kok, cock-a-bondy, cock-and-bull and 89 more...
-
Pickle and such
Words that end like pickle. Listed here because they're funny (because they end like pickle).
pickle, sparkle, yokel, tinkle, fickle, prickle, trickle, circle, snorkel, ensnorkel, chuckle, buckle and 137 more...
-
January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...

fbharjo cockles and mussels alive, alive oh Aug 22, 2009
misterpolly It warms the cockles of my heart! Dec 27, 2007