cocker

Meanings

Noun

• One who breeds gamecocks or engages in the sport of cockfighting.
• One who hunts woodcocks.
• A device that aids in cocking a crossbow.
• A rustic high shoe; half-boot.
• Friend, mate.

Verb

• To make a nestle-cock of; to indulge or pamper .

Origin

• From cock and its derivative cocking, -er.
• From Middle English coker ("a quiver, boot") from Old English cocer ("quiver, case") from Proto-West Germanic *kukur ("container, case"), said to be from Hunnic, possibly from Proto-Mongolic *kökexür. More at quiver.
• Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English cokeren ("to pamper, coddle"); compare Welsh cocru ("to indulge, fondle"), French coqueliner ("to dandle, to imitate the crow of a cock, to run after the girls"), and English cockle and cock.