Language: en
Meaning: Especially offoodordrink(particularly analcoholicbeverage): tocausesomeone tofeeldeeplywarmandcomfortable; tocomfort, tosatisfy.1857, [Thomas Hughes], “The Stage Coach”, inTom Brown’s School Days.[…], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:Macmillan & Co.,→OCLC, part I,page85:Here a fresh-looking barmaid serves them each with a glass of early purl as they stand before the fire, coachman and guard exchanging business remarks. The purlwarms the cockles ofTom'sheartand makes him cough.1859August 4 –1860March 31 (date written),Anthony Trollope, “The Kanturk Hotel, South Main Street, Cork”, inCastle Richmond.[…], volume I, London:Chapman and Hall,[…], published10 May 1860,→OCLC,page103:Well, Aby; here I am, as large as life, but as cold as death. Ugh; what an affair that coach is! Fanny, my best of darlings, give me a drop of something that's best forwarming the cockles ofan old man'sheart.1871, May Fly[pseudonym; H. F. Manley],A Continental Tour, together with Notes and Anecdotes of Diplomatic Life, London:Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.; Wellington, Somerset: Richard Corner,→OCLC,page81:My sandwiches had gone the way of all good sandwiches, and no wine remained towarm the cockles ofmyheart, for my flask had long been emptied.; (figurative)Toprovidesomeone with adeepfeelingofcontentmentorhappiness.Synonyms:warm someone's cockles,warm someone's heart;see alsoThesaurus:gladden[1671, [John Eachard],Some Observations upon the Answer to an Enquiry into the Grounds & Occasions of the Contemt of the Clergy:[…], 4th edition, London:[…]E[van]Tyler and R[alph]Holt, for N[athaniel]Brooke,[…], published1672,→OCLC,pages26–27:Novv, although he ſays in hisPreface,that he vvould not much boaſt of convincing the vvorld, hovv much I vvas miſtaken in vvhat I undertook; yet, I am confident of it, that this Contrivance of his did invvardly as much rejoyce theCockles ofhisheart, as he phanſies, that vvhat I vvrit did ſometimes muchtickle my Spleen.This is the earliest attestation of the termcockles of[someone’s]heartnoted in theOxford English Dictionary.]1902October,E[dith] Nesbit, “The Invaders”, inThe Red House, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers,→OCLC,page210:"You mean that great possessionswarm the cockles ofyourheart," I said; "that's because you're all soul. As for me, I must warm my hands in the tea-cozy before I can carve the eggs."1941,Compton Mackenzie, “The Cave of the Calf”, inThe Monarch of the Glen(Guild Books; number C5), Stockholm, Sweden:[F]or the British Publishers Guild by AB Ljus Förlag, published1945,→OCLC,page125:"Well, they may laugh at us up here for our old-fashioned notions of loyalty, discipline and obedience, but when one finds it I must say itwarms the cockles of the heart. Don't you agree with me, Hugh? I say itwarms the cockles of the heart." / "Oh, very much so," Kilwhillie agreed. The cockles of his own heart were in a responsive condition to warmth that evening[…]1989,Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, chapter 25, inH[arry] T[aylor] Willetts, transl.,August 1914(The Red Wheel: A Narrative in Discrete Periods of Time), 1st paperback edition, New York, N.Y.:Farrar, Straus and Giroux, published2014,→ISBN,page214:"Surname?" / "Blagodarev." / A handy name, easy to get hold of, and the ready way he gave itwarmed the cockles of the heart.
No examples available.
Validation Count: 0
Sourced from Wiktionary