cocker
noun
cocker
1 American
[kok-er]
/ ˈkɒk ər /
noun
cocker
2
American
[kok-er]
/ ˈkɒk ər /
noun
cocker
3
American
[kok-er]
/ ˈkɒk ər /
verb (used with object)
-
cockers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cockered,
past participle, past
-
cockering
present participle
cocker
1
British
/ ˈkɒkə /
noun
-
a devotee of cockfighting
-
short for cocker spaniel
cocker
2
British
/ ˈkɒkə /
verb
noun
Cocker
3
British
/ ˈkɒkə /
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
cockersimple
-
cockerssimple
-
have cockeredperfect
-
has cockeredperfect
-
am cockeringprogressive
-
are cockeringprogressive
-
is cockeringprogressive
-
have been cockeringperfect progressive
-
has been cockeringperfect progressive
Past
-
cockeredsimple
-
had cockeredperfect
-
was cockeringprogressive
-
were cockeringprogressive
-
had been cockeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cocker1
First recorded in 1790–1800; extended sense of cocker 2 ( def. )
Origin of cocker2
First recorded in 1650–60; (game)cock + -er 1, that is, gamecock fancier
Origin of cocker3
First recorded in 1400–1450; origin uncertain
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:
The couple moved to Lancashire last year, accompanied by cocker spaniels Bruce and Bernie, and rabbits Bea and Bailey, after Warner Judd completed her PhD in regenerative medicine at Loughborough.
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026
It added that when a cocker spaniel was bred with a poodle, those characteristics - combined with them having smaller crossbred offspring - could result in more problem behaviour.
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2026
Your cocker spaniel could have won the NFC East.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026
Mamaradlo breeds cocker spaniels that live with her when they’re not “working.”
From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2025
The cocker spaniel sprang for Wilbur’s hind leg.
From "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White
Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker famously stormed the stage in protest while Michael Jackson performed surrounded by children in 1996, while Madonna suffered whiplash injuries in 2015.
From Barron's ● Feb. 28, 2026
Pulp are up for best group, 30 years after Jarvis Cocker stormed the stage during Michael Jackson's performance at the 1996 Brits.
From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2026
When Pulp won the trophy in 1996 for their album Different Class, lead singer Jarvis Cocker announced that the band would donate their prize money to the charity War Child.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2025
“I’ve come to realize over 24 years that I enjoy making music,” Cocker says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2025
The Clumber, Sussex, Norfolk and Cocker breeds are the best established.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 6 "Dodwell" to "Drama" by Various
But maybe this young man has a better plan, maybe how you old cockers did it is antiquated.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 14, 2013
Flip through the Gamecock and it’s clear that cockers are a close fraternity who take a great deal of pride in their roosters and treat this as a primary livelihood.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2012
The magazine also contains obituaries memorializing accomplished cockers and endless advice on how to care for your brood.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2012
Mrs. Norman Thomas, wife of the Socialist, and Mrs. Francis Patrick Gar- van, wife of the Chemical Foundation's philanthropic lawyer-president, both breed fine cockers on Long Island, both had entries in last week's Westminster.
From Time Magazine Archive
There was a gurgling laugh, through which the voice of the peddler could be heard saying: "We'll mak' thee king ower the cockers, my canny lad."
From A Son of Hagar A Romance of Our Time by Sir Hall Caine
“He hath been an only son, greatly cockered by father, mother, and sisters, but ere long he will learn what is befitting.”
From The Armourer's Prentices by W.J. Hennessy
He was wondering how it should never have occurred to him before that the scared little white-faced thing might have fallen into kindly hands, and been nursed and cockered up and made a lady of?
From The Dop Doctor by Richard Dehan
For my part, I am the most cockered up of any mortal 268 being; and one of the healthiest, or thereabout, at some modest distance from the bull’s eye.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 24 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson
The lawless liberty of the Tower, so long cockered and fostered with hopes exorbitant, hath bred suitable desires and affections.
From Sir Walter Ralegh A Biography by W. (William) Stebbing
Instead of being made comfortable, and cockered up with every luxury, as they are at Clubs, bachelors ought to be rendered profoundly miserable, in my opinion.
From The Book of Snobs by William Makepeace Thackeray
She had been a cockering, fawning nurse to me not so many months ago.
From The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the moors... by George Augustus Sala
The prayers of cockering mothers prevailed with him just as much as the requests of indulgent fathers, rather increasing than mitigating his severity on their offending children.
From The Last Leaf Observations, during Seventy-Five Years, of Men and Events in America and Europe by James Kendall Hosmer
Sometimes they pine and fall into a slow consumption, we nursing, cockering, and physicking them to the last.
From Nancy by Rhoda Broughton
You want cockering up," he said, "and coddling and waiting on.
From A Life Sentence A Novel by Adeline Sergeant
And as to our Jeanie, they are all cockering her up till she'll no be content with a king.
From Two Penniless Princesses by Charlotte Mary Yonge
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
