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# cockle

«cockle» in Mova's school dictionary: **A small edible shellfish with two ribbed, heart-shaped…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a cockle, cockles)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A small edible shellfish with two ribbed, heart-shaped shells, found in sand on beaches. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cockle/#m1)

2) (idiom) «It warms the cockles of my heart» means it makes me feel happy and loved. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cockle/#m2)

3) A small light boat (also called a cockleshell). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cockle/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science and seaside lessons cockles are molluscs that live buried in wet sand. The Irish song «Molly Malone» has «cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o». The heartwarming idiom is used in everyday British, Irish and Australian talk.

### examples

- We found empty cockle shells on the beach. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cockle/#x1)
- Cockles bury themselves in wet sand. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cockle/#x2)
- Molly Malone sold cockles and mussels in Dublin. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cockle/#x3)
- Your kind letter warmed the cockles of my heart. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cockle/#x4)
- People in Wales still gather cockles at low tide. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cockle/#x5)
- The tiny cockle bobbed on the waves. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cockle/#x6)

### note

Countable: one cockle, two cockles. The idiom always uses the plural: «the cockles of your heart». A cockle is a mollusc, an animal without a backbone, like mussels and clams.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «cockle» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cockle/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.