cockle
1 Americannoun
-
any bivalve mollusk of the genus Cardium, having somewhat heart-shaped, radially ribbed valves, especially C. edule, the common edible species of Europe.
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any of various allied or similar mollusks.
-
a cockle in fabric.
-
a small, crisp candy of sugar and flour, bearing a motto.
verb (used without object)
-
cockles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cockled,
past participle, past
-
cockling
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
cockles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cockled,
past participle, past
-
cockling
present participle
idioms
noun
noun
-
any sand-burrowing bivalve mollusc of the family Cardiidae, esp Cardium edule ( edible cockle ) of Europe, typically having a rounded shell with radiating ribs
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any of certain similar or related molluscs
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short for cockleshell
-
a wrinkle or puckering, as in cloth or paper
-
a small furnace or stove
-
one's deepest feelings (esp in the phrase warm the cockles of one's heart )
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
cocklesimple
-
cocklessimple
-
have cockledperfect
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has cockledperfect
-
am cocklingprogressive
-
are cocklingprogressive
-
is cocklingprogressive
-
have been cocklingperfect progressive
-
has been cocklingperfect progressive
Past
-
cockledsimple
-
had cockledperfect
-
was cocklingprogressive
-
were cocklingprogressive
-
had been cocklingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cockle1
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English cokel, cokil(le), from Old French coquille, “shell, shell of a mollusk, mollusk,” from Vulgar Latin cocchīlia (unattested), from Latin conchylia, plural of conchȳlium, from Greek konchȳ́lion, equivalent to konchȳ́l(ē) “mussel, cockle” + -ion diminutive suffix; compare Old English -cocc in sǣ-cocc literally, “sea-cockle” from Vulgar Latin coccus (unattested) for Latin concha conch
Origin of cockle2
First recorded before 1000; Middle English cok(k)el, Old English coccel; further origin uncertain; perhaps from Late Latin cocculus (unattested), diminutive of coccus “berry, seed” ( see coccus ( def. ))
Vocabulary lists containing cockle
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Scallop on a cauliflower purée bed and cockle popcorn and chorizo crumb.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2023
“This tells us that all of those nearly identical cancers came from a single cockle in the past,” Metzger said.
From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2023
“When our team went back a year later, it was just covered in cockle shells,” Barber said.
From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2023
He was speaking from Rio where he is installing his follow-up work, 10,000 Lives, about the world of the Chinese cockle pickers who drowned on Morecambe Bay in 2004.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 11, 2016
"When sea and sand turn far inland, And mussels grow on ilka tree,60 When cockle shells turn siller bells, I'll drink the orange wine wi' thee."
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume IV by Various
The cold-natured among us can warm their cockles with the heated steering wheel, heated front and rear seats and radiant leg warmers built into the Touring package.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
The deal also benefits shellfish producers after the EU banned British fishermen from selling live mussels, oysters, clams, cockles and scallops to its member states in 2021.
From BBC ● May 19, 2025
And the vision of Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought or, indeed, Elon Musk being frog-marched off to the hoosegow will warm the cockles of many a heart.
From Slate ● Feb. 13, 2025
Found in the warm, equatorial waters of the Indo-Pacific, heart cockles have a mutually beneficial relationship with microscopic algae that live inside their tissues.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 2, 2024
“Bit o' news to warm the cockles of yer hearts.”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Even in the bedroom there were embroidered pin-cushions, landscapes in cross-stitch, and crosses in folded paper, so elaborately cockled as to show the senseless labor they had cost.
From The Commission in Lunacy by Honoré de Balzac
He further carried this out afterwards in the application of the deeper coloured, and usually softer, varnishes, which when manipulated by other masters of the same school, have frizzled or cockled from some cause.
From Antonio Stradivari by Horace William Petherick
Love's feeling is more soft and sensible Than are the tender horns of cockled snails.
From Home Pastimes; or Tableaux Vivants by James H. Head
The leaves of a vellum book that have become cockled from damp or other causes may be flattened by damping them, pulling them out straight, and allowing them to dry under pressure.
From Bookbinding, and the Care of Books A handbook for Amateurs, Bookbinders & Librarians by Noel Rooke
Only a comparatively light pressure should be given, or the lining up of the headbands or back will become cockled and detached.
From Bookbinding, and the Care of Books A handbook for Amateurs, Bookbinders & Librarians by Noel Rooke
It is 10 years since the Morecambe Bay cockling tragedy when the notorious tides and channels claimed the lives of 23 Chinese cockle workers.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2014
Will you want me, uncle? because, if not, I shall go out early with Bill Corbett cockling.
From A Chapter of Adventures by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
This makes a joint free of cockling, and when dry the inking can be completed across the joint.
From How to Observe in Archaeology by Various
Why should she pretend not to know a friend—least of all when she’d been cockling?
From Pixie O'Shaughnessy by William H. C. Groome
This turbulent sea was occasioned in part by the current; which, setting out slanting against the wind, was by it raised into short cockling seas.
From A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland by William Dampier
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
