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Definition of "cockle" [coc•kle]

  • Any of various bivalve mollusks of the family Cardiidae, having rounded or heart-shaped shells with radiating ribs. (noun)
  • The shell of a cockle. (noun)
  • A wrinkle; a pucker. (noun)
  • Nautical A cockleshell. (noun)
  • To become or cause to become wrinkled or puckered. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "cockle" in a sentence
  • "Or has it been an accident that a nation which loved the sea and counted everything that floated human, sent its sons faring forth in cockle-shells to a land when there were still great spaces to be occupied?"
  • "And the cockle are the children of the wicked one."
  • "There are plants called cockle-burs whose seed-pods are provided with stickers in every direction, so that anything brushing against them is sure to pick them up."