warm the cockles of someone's heart

present singular third person warms the cockles of someone's heart · participle present warming the cockles of someone's heart · participle past warmed the cockles of someone's heart · past warmed the cockles of someone's heart

1. datedidiomaticintransitiveEspecially of food or drink (particularly an alcoholic beverage): to cause someone to feel deeply warm and comfortable; to comfort, to satisfy.

   My sandwiches had gone the way of all good sandwiches, and no wine remained to warm the cockles of my heart, for my flask had long been emptied.

   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, page 81

   2 more examples

   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 purl warms the cockles of Tom's heart and makes him cough.

   1857, [Thomas Hughes], “The Stage Coach”, in Tom Brown’s School Days. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, part I, page 85

   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 for warming the cockles of an old man's heart.

   1859 August 4 – 1860 March 31 (date written), Anthony Trollope, “The Kanturk Hotel, South Main Street, Cork”, in Castle Richmond. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 10 May 1860, →OCLC, page 103

2. datedfigurativelyidiomaticintransitiveTo provide someone with a deep feeling of contentment or happiness.

   "Surname?" / "Blagodarev." / A handy name, easy to get hold of, and the ready way he gave it warmed the cockles of the heart.

   1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, chapter 25, in H[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, published 2014, →ISBN, page 214

   3 more examples

   Novv, although he ſays in his Preface, 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 the Cockles of his heart, as he phanſies, that vvhat I vvrit did ſometimes much tickle my Spleen.

   [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, […], published 1672, →OCLC, pages 26–27

   "You mean that great possessions warm the cockles of your heart," 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."

   1902 October, E[dith] Nesbit, “The Invaders”, in The Red House, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 210

   "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 it warms the cockles of the heart. Don't you agree with me, Hugh? I say it warms 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 […]

   1941, Compton Mackenzie, “The Cave of the Calf”, in The Monarch of the Glen (Guild Books; number C5), Stockholm, Sweden: [F]or the British Publishers Guild by AB Ljus Förlag, published 1945, →OCLC, page 125

   Synonyms: warm someone's cockles, warm someone's heart, beatify, enrapture, begladden, blissen, bright, cheer