hockle

Probably from hackle, a brush once used for fraying flax, and related to heckle (“to tease”).

hockle (plural hockles)

1. A knob in cordage caused by twisting against the lay.

hockle (third-person singular simple present hockles, present participle hockling, simple past and past participle hockled)

1. To damage cordage by twisting against the lay.

From imperfect and past participle hockled; from present participle and verbal noun hockling. From hock.

hockle (third-person singular simple present hockles, present participle hockling, simple past and past participle hockled)

1. (transitive) to disable by cutting the tendons of the ham.

   Synonyms: hamstring, hock, hough

2. (transitive) To mow, as stubble.

Probably onomatopoeic.

hockle (uncountable)

1. (Geordie, vulgar) spit, spittle

hockle (third-person singular simple present hockles, present participle hocklin, simple past and past participle hockled)

1. (Geordie) To spit.

• “hockle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• hockle in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.