Meaning of Cocky | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A familiar name for a cockatoo.
   Australia, New-Zealand, informal
2. Used as a term of endearment, originally for a person of either sex, but later primarily for a man.
   British, Ireland, Newfoundland, colloquial, dated
3. Clipping of cockatoo farmer (“small-scale farmer”); (by extension) any farmer or owner of rural land.
   Australia, New-Zealand, abbreviation, also, alt-of, attributive, clipping, informal

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“They're not going to stand for a couple of actors bossing the place [The Old Vic theatre] around any more. We shall be out, old cockie.”

“Somewhere, somehow, there had to be something more ennobling than that. But how to find it? Ah, there's the rub, my cockies.”

“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.”

“Next comes the rosellas and the cockatoos and the rest of the local parrots. Their singing is much heartier, and they begin to drown out their cousins. Finally Kate can hear a galah, his deep-throated song is interrupted by the cockies, but he is persistent in his welcome to the day.”

“'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.”

“Now—well, Moura was scarcely Drinkwater, but it was more than just a cocky farm too.”

“Joseph was a cockie, a small-scale farmer. Such farmers were called cockies in the early days of European settlement in Australia because, like the cockatoos that weaved and screeched above them, they made their homes on the edges of creeks and permanent waterholes.”

CEFR level