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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

COCKLE, v.2

1. “To totter, be unsteady and easily knocked down or overturned” (Sc. 1898 E.D.D.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.). Also in n.Eng. dial. (E.D.D.).

Hence cockly, unsteady (Abd.19 1937; Rxb. 2000s); given in N.E.D. for s.Sc.

2. “To topple over, as by shaking” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.).

3. Combs.: (1) cockle-brained, feather-brained, frivolous (only Eng. example in N.E.D. 1708); (2) cockle-cutit, -kittit, “having bad ancles, so that the feet seem to be twisted away from them, lying outwards” (Lnk. 1825 Jam.2). Known also to Edb.3 (1929); (3) cockleheaded, whimsical, scatter-brained; (4) cockletopt, idem. None of these combs. except (2) is known to our correspondents. [The cockle in these combs. prob. = cockly.](1) Sc. 1824 Scott St Ronan's W. I. i.:
Thae cockle-brained callants of the present day . . . would be mair owerta'en with a puir quart than douce folks were with a magnum.
(3) Sc. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxi.:
But he's crack-brained and cockleheaded about his nipperty-tipperty poetry nonsense.
(4) Ayr. 1830 Galt Southennan I. xvii.:
The old Queen's millinder, a cockletopt French leddy . . . was soon after sent out o' the kingdom.

[See Cocker, v., in the same sense. The possibility, however, of its arising from the unsteady motion of a “cockle-shell” boat on the water is strengthened by a parallelism in the use of Coble, n.2, a small fishing-boat, and Coble, v., to rock, undulate.]

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"Cockle v.2". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 7 Nov 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/cockle_v2>

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