warm the cockles of someone's heart
Fig. to make someone feel warm and happy. It warms the cockles of my heart to hear you say that. Hearing that old song again warmed the cockles of her heart.
warm the cockles of one's heart
Gratify one, make one feel good, as in It warms the cockles of my heart to see them getting along so well. This expression uses a corruption of the Latin name for the heart's ventricles, cochleae cordis. [Second half of 1600s]
warm the cockles of one's heart, to
To gratify; to make someone feel good. This term comes from the Latin for the heart’s ventricles, cochleas cordis, and has been used figuratively since the late seventeenth century. “This contrivance of his did inwardly rejoice the cockles of his heart,” wrote John Eachard (Observations upon the Answer to Contempt of Clergy, 1671).