cocky

adj

1. Overly confident; arrogant and boastful.

   “And now I think I may be cocky, / Since fortune has ſmurtl'd on me, / I'm Jenny, an' ye ſhall be Jockie, / 'Tis right we together ſud be; [...]”

   “Pretty girls, indeed, can with impunity, menace their lovers with quitting them; but cocky Waithman, will, if he try it often, soon find, that he cannot play such tricks without having to repent of it.”

   “You are a cockie chap to go again a man axing where and what you 'a been when you are axing a place, [...]”

   “Hodges has made a great fool of himself, by getting gradually cockier and cockier.”

   “I wasn't the least bit proud. I dare say I was one of the least cocky creatures in existence these days.”

noun

1. (British, Ireland, Newfoundland, colloquial, dated)Used as a term of endearment, originally for a person of either sex, but later primarily for a man.

   “Nay Cocky, Cocky, nay dear Cocky, do not cry, I was but in Jeſt, I was not ifeck [in faith?].”

   “Lu[cretia]. Ah, ah, are we not by our ſelves already, my Cocky? So[phronius]. Let us go out of the Way ſomewhere, into a more private Place.”

   “Now, cocky, ye may gang about your buſineſs; when ye come back, I'ſe tauk with you in another ſtile.”

   “Hobhouse's insolence to Mr. Hunt is not seen in its true light, unless we remember, that the latter is held under heavy recognizances to keep the peace! The little cocky seems to have been half mad; and well he might.”

   “"Go on board that little cockleshell of yourn?"—pointing to the splendid yacht—"not if I knows it, my cockeys! This old oss is spry to when he is well off—so make tracks and be off, before you gits this old coon's dander up.”

2. (Australia, New-Zealand, informal)A familiar name for a cockatoo.

   “By that time, the white cockatoo—a beautiful bird, as large as a common fowl—would find out the family gathering-place, and waddle along, calling 'Pretty Cocky! Pretty Cocky!' […] Presently, Cocky ruffles his plumage till he looks half as large again as before; he throws his crest, with its double fan of brilliantly yellow feathers, as far forward as possible, and spreads and closes it rapidly.”

   “"Hello Cocky! What yer want?" This in a more-than-human voice from a fine sulphur-crested cockatoo. "Hello Cocky!" His thick black tongue worked in his narrow mouth. So absolutely human the sound, and yet a bird's.”

   “Visit the local store at Coles Bay and you're greeted by a talking cocky called Jim. […] [A]s we bid farewell to this environmental showpiece, Jim the talking cocky is again the centre of attention …”

   “One afternoon a flock of glossy black cockatoos alights on a cluster of she-oaks in the western corner of the yard where they screech in ear-splitting decibels until dusk. […] [H]e tells her that the arrival of black cockies is a portent of rain. But the rain doesn't come.”

   “He smacked his lips a couple of times and grimaced. God, his mouth tastled like the bottom of a cockie’s cage. Probably smelt as appealing too.”

3. (Australia, New-Zealand, abbreviation, also, alt-of, attributive, clipping, informal)Clipping of cockatoo farmer (“small-scale farmer”); (by extension) any farmer or owner of rural land.

   “'I'll get down among the cockies along the Lachlan or some of those rivers,' said Mitchell, throwing down his swag beneath a big tree. 'A man stands a better show down there. [...] One cocky I worked for wanted me to stay with him for good. Sorry I didn't. [...']”

   “We camped one evening at Narrangidgery Creek, close b’ a cocky’s ’umstead.”

   “Burrawong was one of the larger stations in which much of the good land of the district was locked. The cockies usually had to follow the main road, but since the drought the owners had opened one of their permanent water-holes so that the poorer settlers could cart water to their homesteads.”

   “That chap could be one of them. Or it could be the local butcher or newsagent, or cow cockie. We don't know. We've got to keep going.”

   “And stories in the bush may not seem relevant in the big smoke, but try telling that to a cocky.”

verb

1. (Australia, New-Zealand, historical, informal, intransitive)To operate a small-scale farm.

   “But if we are bigger built than you blokes, I suppose it's 'coz we—most of us—live away from big cities, and everybody goes in for sport an' all that; plenty of ridin' an' walkin' an' swimmin' and football an' hard work. Most of us are off the land, cockeying, and the blokes who come from the cities, Sydney and places like that, they all go in for surfing an' all kinds of sport.”

   “I remained about a year, cockying, clearing land, and herd-recording as a servant of the Department of Agriculture.”

   “[B]oys these days haven't got the guts to go cockying.”

   “When we arrived in Sydney, we were herded together, and a mob of cockies had their pick of us as cheap pommy labor. As assisted migrants, we were more or less doomed to work in cocky country, because bush workers generally don't much like cockying.”

   “Perhaps I ought to try getting a job somewhere cockeying. But I was against this. I was after Hanabeke and, as far as I could work out, Womboolah was the most likely place for him to be.”