1551–2 Act 5 & 6 Edward VI c. 6 §1 in Statutes of Realm (1963) IV. i. 136 Cockelinge bandinge and diverse other great and notable faultes.

1691 T. Hale Acct. New Inventions 111 Occasioned by cockling and rising of the Lead into a ridge.

1848 Gardeners' Chron. 19 Aug. 555/1 Its [glass's] thickness is so variable from the effects of cockling.

1879 F. E. Hulme Math. Drawing Instruments & how to use Them xi. 121 It is much easier..to colour on a strained surface, as the cockling up of the paper is avoided.

1933 Brit. Mus. Q. 7 94 This etherized solution is applied by a soft camel-hair brush, and cockling and swelling of the paper is thus avoided.

2000 Jrnl. Amer. Inst. Conservation 39 305/1 It also allows the entire laminate to react uniformly to moisture and prevents uneven drying, cockling, and tearing of the original during splitting.

1579 T. Twyne tr. Petrarch Phisicke against Fortune ii. xliii. f. 218^v The hardnesse of a father is many tymes profitable for the sonne: cocklyng [L. mollicies] is alwayes to be condemned.

1616 Office of Christian Parents iii. 55 The mamish cockling of the parents..maketh the parents and all the house slaues.

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1593) ii. sig. V4 These cocklinges cockred we be waile to late, When we that see our offspring gaily bent, Wemen man-wood, & men effeminate.

1903 S. D. Lowrie David the Hero v. 96 See what havoc will be wrought of the friendship of the prince when this young cockling discovers that the king's daughter is to be none of his.

1721 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. Cheverillus, a Cockling, or young Cock.

1854 L. A. Meall Moubray's Treat. Poultry vii. 364 The young fowls retain it [sc. the term chicken] until about four months old, when the male is called a ‘cockerel’, or ‘cockling’, and the female a ‘pullet’.

1875 J. C. Jeaffreson Bk. about Table II. ix. 194 If the egg afforded a hen-chick, Livia would have a daughter; if it yielded a cockling, she would have a boy.

1938 Canad. Poultry Rev. Jan. 23/1 A well filled class with quality in all sections good, the winning cockling especially pleasing.

1629 J. Reynolds tr. L. de Marandé Iudgm. Humane Actions iv. i. 119 The winds which raise small cocklings [Fr. frisures] vpon our riuers..can raise whole mountaines of waues..on the Sea.

1694 R. Orpen London-master 4 So landlockt, that..the greatest Winds have not power to create Seas, or to make any, more then [sic] a small cockling of the water.

1790 A. Wheeler Westmorland Dial. 14 I doant like Cocklin.

1870 Pall Mall Gaz. 4 Jan. 8 A business largely followed on the coast of Lancashire, called ‘cockling’.

1937 G. S. L. Clowes Brit. Fishing & Coastal Craft 18 The ‘lugger’, a clincher-built double-ended boat, whose shallow draft and comparatively horizontal keel make her especially suitable for cockling.

2002 Independent 29 Apr. i. 5/3 Concerns were raised about the habitats of birds and the effect of cockling on bird populations.

1582 S. Batman Vppon Bartholome, De Proprietatibus Rerum sig. ¶¶.vi/1 Botchy, swelling up or cockeling.

1601 Act 43 Elizabeth I c. 10 §1 in Statutes of Realm (1963) IV. ii. 975 The same Clothes..are found to shrincke rewey pursey squallie cocklinge.

1893 ‘O. Thanet’ Adventure in Photogr. ix. 169 No weight will keep a cockling paper straight after it has been taken off.

1966 A. J. Hall Textile Finishing (ed. 3) ii. 72 A crepe fabric differs from plain fabric in that it is woven with a proportion of yarns having a high degree of twist capable in wet processing of causing a cockling surface to give it a pebble or crepe appearance.

1995 S. Ogden in B. B. Higginbotham Adv. in Preserv. & Access II. vi. 349 These dimensional changes accelerate deterioration and lead to such visible damage as cockling paper, flaking ink, and warped covers.

1625 S. Purchas Pilgrimes I. v. vii. 653 From sixe to twelue, it was calme with a cockling Sea, setting in vpon the shoare.

1698 J. Covant Let. 20 Oct. in W. Dampier Voy. & Descr. (1699) iii. v. 57 In this Passage between the said Islands we find strange Rippling and Cockling Seas, ready to leap in upon the Ships Deck.

1773 J. Hawkesworth Acct. Voy. Southern Hemisphere III. 650 There run a short cockling sea which must very soon have bulged the ship if she had strucke.

1847 H. Miller First Impressions Eng. v. 68 For acres together they present the phenomenon of a cockling sea of gardens—a rural Bay of Biscay agitated by a ground-swell.

1933 F. Chichester Seaplane Solo xvii. 303 The plane..bobbed about on the cockling water.

1634 W. Wood New Englands Prospect ii. xvii. 91 In these cockling fly-boates, wherein an English man can scarce sit without a fearefull tottering, they will venture to Sea.

1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) at Cocklety What a cocklin waw thou's belt.

1877 E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs. at Cockelty That chair stan's cocklin'; it's got three long legs an' a short un.

1888 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. Cockling, shaky, tottering, loose-jointed.

1995 J. M. Sims-Kimbrey Wodds & Doggerybaw: Lincs. Dial. Dict. 64/1 Cocklin',..tottery.