Other forms: cockles
A cockle is a small edible shellfish. A bag of cockles, cockles and mussels, gather cockles.
They are dug from wet sand at low tide, and the work is dangerous where the tide comes in fast across flats. Warm the cockles of your heart is the fixed phrase, and it means to give somebody a deep quiet pleasure.
1nouncockleA small edible shellfish.
“The seaside stall sold little pots of cockles with vinegar and pepper.”
cockle is a shellfish.
Middle English cokel names the shellfish, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Old French coquille, a shell.
Middle English
cokel
English, today
cockle
Built from
From Middle English cokel, cokkel, kokkel, cocle, of uncertain origin. Perhaps a diminutive of Middle English cokke, cok (“cockle”), from Old English cocc (found in sǣcocc (“cockle”)) le; or perhaps from Old French coquille, from Vulgar Latin cocchilia, from conchylia, from Ancient Greek κογχύλιον, diminutive of κογχύλη (“mussel”), of qsb-grc qfa-sub origin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA