I. ˈkäkəl, ˈkək- noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English cockel, cockle, from Old English coccel
1.
a. : bearded darnel
b. : corn cockle
c. : any of several other plants growing in grainfields (as the cowherb, corn poppy, or cocklebur)
2. : a small gall resembling a seed of the corn cockle that is produced on wheat by a nematode worm ( Anguina tritici )
II. ˈkäkəl noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English cokille, from Middle French coquille shell, modification (influenced by coque shell, from Latin coccum excrescence on a tree) of Latin conchylia, plural of conchylium, from Greek konchylion, from konchē shell — more at coak , conch
1.
a. : a bivalve mollusk of the family Cardiidae characterized by a shell that has convex radially ribbed valves and prominent umbones and is somewhat heart-shaped as seen from one end ; especially : a common edible European bivalve ( Cardium edule )
b. : any of many small or medium bivalves more or less resembling members of the Cardiidae — used usually with a qualifying word
beaked cockles
false cockles
2. : cockleshell
3. : a confection inscribed with a motto
4. cockles plural : cockles of the heart
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle French coquille
1. : pucker , wrinkle , bulge , ripple
a cockle in glass
cockles in paper
2. : a warty outgrowth constituting a defect on sheepskins
IV. verb
( cockled ; cockled ; cockling -k(ə)liŋ ; cockles )
Etymology: Middle French coquiller, from coquille, n.
intransitive verb
1. : to contract, pucker, or bulge so as to produce cockles especially (of fabrics or paper) after wetting or (of fabrics) because of the uneven tension of the yarn during weaving
vellum leaves cockle badly with atmospheric changes — All the King's Horses
2. : ripple
the cockling waves along the shore
transitive verb
: to cause to cockle
the humidity of the room cockled the documents
V. adjective
Etymology: probably from cockle (II) (shell)
Scotland : whimsical , queer — used in compounds
cockle -headed
VI. noun
( -s )
Etymology: modification (influenced by cockle ) (II) of Dutch kachel (obsolete Dutch also kaeckel ), short for kacheloven, from Middle High German, earthen oven, from kachel earthen pot (from Old High German chachala, from — assumed — Vulgar Latin caculus, cacculus, alteration of Late Latin cacabulus, caccabulus, diminutive of cacabus, caccabus cooking pot, from Greek kakkabos, perhaps from a Semitic word akin to Assyrian kukubu a vessel) + oven, from Old High German ovan — more at oven
1. : any of various stoves or heaters now largely disused: as
a. : cockle oast
b. : cockle stove
2.
a. : the fire chamber of an air stove or certain furnaces
b. : the dome of a heating furnace
VII. intransitive verb
( cockled ; cockled ; cockling -k(ə)liŋ ; cockles )
Etymology: perhaps from cockle (II) (“boat”)
dialect Britain : wobble