Etymology From cock (“a male bird, especially a rooster”) and its derivative cocking (“the hunting of gamecocks”), + -er (occupational suffix) or + -er (agent noun suffix).
1
One who breeds gamecocks or engages in the sport of cockfighting.
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:
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The standard default cocking mechanism is the rope cocker.2013, Todd A. Kuhn, Shooter's Bible Guide to Bowhunting:
Etymology 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”).
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:
Cocker thy childe, and hee ſhall make thee afraid: play with him and he will bring thee to heauinesse.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiasticus 30:9:
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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:
Etymology 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.
Etymology 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”).
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, →ISBN, page 361: