cockle
1 Americannoun
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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.
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a cockle in fabric.
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a small, crisp candy of sugar and flour, bearing a motto.
verb (used without object)
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cockles,
present (3rd person singular)
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cockled,
past participle, past
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cockling
present participle
verb (used with object)
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cockles,
present (3rd person singular)
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cockled,
past participle, past
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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
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a wrinkle or puckering, as in cloth or paper
-
a small furnace or stove
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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
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cocklesimple
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cocklessimple
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have cockledperfect
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has cockledperfect
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am cocklingprogressive
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are cocklingprogressive
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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
The bay, where 23 Chinese cockle pickers died in 2004, is notorious for quicksand, fast-rising tides, swirling currents and deep tidal channels.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2021
On coming alongside we fended off our frail cockle shell, while Felgate climbed softly up her sides and gained the deck.
From A Lad of Grit A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea in Restoration Times by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
She was also the subject of a traditional folk song, which tells the story of a fishmongers' daughter who sold cockles and mussels from a wheelbarrow.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 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
Heart cockles and many other marine animals use a special form of calcium carbonate called aragonite to make their shells.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 2, 2024
Large cockles can filter three liters per hour and this concentrating effect was so powerful that we found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the cockles even when we couldn't detect them in water samples.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2023
“Bit o' news to warm the cockles of yer hearts.”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
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
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
I never grew weary, either, of gathering stately and graceful green ferns, and finding them all "cockled up," as the phrase went, when I got home.
From Autumn Leaves Original Pieces in Prose and Verse by Anne Wales Abbot
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
She had a very sweet, kind face, all cockled with wrinkles like a sheet of crumpled tissue paper, but very beautiful in its age.
From The Dictator by Justin McCarthy
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
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
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
The book may now be shut up if a waterproof sheet is put at each end to prevent the damp of the cover from cockling the paper.
From Bookbinding, and the Care of Books A handbook for Amateurs, Bookbinders & Librarians by Noel Rooke
Here was another hair's breadth escape; for it was nearly high water, and there ran a short cockling sea, which if the ship had struck, must very soon have bulged her.
From Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook : with an Account of His Life During the Previous and Intervening Periods by Andrew Kippis
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.
