cocker

Etymology 1

From cock (“a male bird, especially a rooster”) and its derivative cocking (“the hunting of gamecocks”), + -er (occupational suffix) or + -er (agent noun suffix).

noun

1. One who breeds gamecocks or engages in the sport of cockfighting.
2. (dated) One who hunts woodcocks.
3. (colloquial) A cocker spaniel, either of two breeds of dogs originally bred for hunting woodcocks.
4. A device that aids in cocking a crossbow.
   You have your choice of two stock-mounted cocking aids: the Acudraw 50, an integral rope cocker, or the Acudraw crank-operated device. 2007, Field and Stream - Volume 112, page 62
   The down side is that they are hard to draw without special lever cockers. 2011, Ritchie R. Moorhead, The Kid Looks Back-Short Stories & Tall Tales, page 48
   The standard default cocking mechanism is the rope cocker. 2013, Todd A. Kuhn, Shooter's Bible Guide to Bowhunting

Etymology 2

From Middle English coker (“a quiver, boot”) from Old English cocer (“quiver, case”) from Proto-West Germanic *kukur (“container, case”), said to be from Hunnic, possibly from Proto-Mongolic *kökexür (“leather vessel for liquids”). More at quiver.

noun

1. A rustic high shoe; half-boot.
2. (obsolete) A quiver.

Etymology 3

Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English cokeren (“to pamper, coddle”); compare Welsh cocru (“to indulge, fondle”), French coqueliner (“to dandle, to imitate the crow of a cock, to run after the girls”), and English cockle and cock (“rooster; to spoil”).

noun

1. (UK, informal) Friend, mate.
   I been to see 'im. Not pretty. Ward sister tell me 'e'll be alright but not for a while yet. Concussion. Bloody 'ell! Lucky 'e wasn't killed, lump of lead like that. Lucky for you too, cocker... 1993, Arnold Wesker, Bluey
   He said, 'Not my cup of Darjeeling, cocker. I've been more intellectually challenged at a kiddies' swimming gala.' 2004, Sue Townsend, Adrian Mole and The Weapons of Mass Destruction, page 361

verb

1. To make a nestle-cock of; to indulge or pamper (particularly of children).
   […] shall a beardless boy, A cocker’d silken wanton, brave our fields […]? c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, act V, scene 1
   But if you was to ask your ma, she would tell you that poor folks can no ways afford to cocker themselves up as lying-in ladies do. 1879, Jean Ingelow, chapter 1, in Sarah De Berenger, Boston: Roberts Brothers, page 6