[perh. transferred from COCKLE sb.1 the grains being compared to the black seeds.] A disease of wheat produced by a nematoid worm (Tylenchus tritici), whereby the grains become black and deformed like pepper-corns.
1862. Chambers, Encycl., Ear-cockles.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., II. iii. 572. In the ears of wheat affected with the blight termed the ‘cockle.’
[Cockle, explained as ‘a little or young cock (obs.)’: an error in Johnson founded on a misprint of cocke; corrected by Todd, but nevertheless repeated by later compilers.]
