cockle

Meanings

Noun

• Any of various edible European bivalve mollusks, of the family Cardiidae, having heart-shaped shells.
• The shell of such a mollusk.
• One’s innermost feelings (only in the expression “the cockles of one’s heart”).
• A wrinkle, pucker
• A defect in sheepskin; firm dark nodules caused by the bites of keds on live sheep
• The mineral black tourmaline or schorl.
• The fire chamber of a furnace.
• A kiln for drying hops; an oast.
• The dome of a heating furnace.
• Any of several field weeds, such as the common corncockle (Agrostemma githago) and darnel ryegrass (Lolium temulentum).
• A £10 note; a tenner.

Verb

• To cause to contract into wrinkles or ridges, as some kinds of cloth after a wetting; to pucker.

Related

Similar words

• darnel, false wheat

Origin

• From Middle English cokel, cokkel, kokkel, cocle, of uncertain origin. Perhaps a diminutive of Middle English cokke, cok, from Old English cocc (found in sǣcocc) -le; or perhaps from Old French coquille, from Vulgar Latin *cocchilia, from conchylia, from Ancient Greek κογχύλιον, diminutive of κογχύλη, from Proto-Indo-European *konkho.
• From Middle English cockil, cokil, cokylle, from Old English coccel, of unknown origin, perhaps from a diminutive of Latin coccus ("berry").
• Rhyming slang, from cock and hen for ten.