Obs. or dial. [Equivalent in meaning to COCKLE v.2, both being in form iterative and diminutive, as if from a stem *cock- in sense ‘shake’; probably onomatopæic.]
intr. To totter or oscillate from instability: said of a thing having a high center of gravity, when it rocks so as to be in danger of falling.
Hence Cockering ppl. a.; also Cockery, -ie a., Cockersome a.; Cockeriness sb. (all Sc.).
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 118. Some … stirryng their feete as though they stode in a cockeryng bote.
1825–79. Jamieson, Cockering, tottering, threatening to tumble, especially in consequence of being placed too high.
