/ˈkɒk.i/, /ˈkɑ.ki/, /ˈkɔk.i/
OriginFrom cock (“male domestic chicken”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense of ‘having the quality of’).
- 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, [...]”
- British, Ireland, Newfoundland, colloquial, datedUsed 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.”
- Australia, New-Zealand, informalA 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 ruf”
“"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”
“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 …”
- Australia, New-Zealand, abbreviation, also, alt-ofClipping 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 ”
“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 ”
- Australia, New-Zealand, historical, informal, intransitiveTo 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 foo”
“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.”
Formscockier(comparative) · cockiest(superlative) · cockey(alternative) · cockie(alternative) · cockies(plural) · cockies(present, singular, third-person) · cockying(participle, present) · cockied(participle, past) · cockied(past)