English

Noun

cocky ‎(plural cockies)

1. Abbreviation of cockatoo; used when pretending to talk to such a bird, as in "hello cocky".
   • 2005 August 5, The World Today: Town seeks environmental accreditation, Australian Broadcasting Commission radio programme, transcript,

     Visit the local store at Coles Bay and you′re greeted by a talking cocky called Jim.

2. (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A cockatoo farmer.
   • 1907, Barbara Baynton, Human Toll, Gutenberg Australia eBook #0607531,

     ‘We camped one evening at Narrangidgery Creek, close b′ a cocky′s ′umstead. […] ’

   • 1946, Miles Franklin, My Career Goes Bung, Gutenberg Australia eBook #0900281,

     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.

   • 2001 November 19, Shelley Horton, Media Dimensions: Episode 15, Australian Broadcasting Commission TV programme, transcript,

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

   • 2010, Jackie French, A Waltz for Matilda, unnumbered page,

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

3. (New Zealand, informal) A sheep farmer.

Usage notes

• (farmer): In both Australia and New Zealand, forms such as sheep cocky (sheep farmer) and cow cocky (dairy farmer) exist. In New Zealand, cocky is often synonymous with sheep cocky, due to the relative importance of the industry.

Synonyms

• (bird): birdie
• (farmer): crofter; see also farmer

Derived terms

(farmer): boss cocky, cocky's joy

Etymology 2

From cocksure +‎ -y ‎(“having quality of”).

Adjective

cocky ‎(comparative cockier, superlative cockiest)

1. Overly confident, arrogant and boastful.
   • 1881 November 29, Sir Ernest Mason Satow, Letter to William George Aston, 2008, Sir Ernest Mason Satow, Ian Ruxton (editor), Sir Ernest Satow's Private Letters to W.G. Aston and F.V. Dickins: The Correspondence of a Pioneer Japanologist from 1870 to 1918, page 66,

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

   • 2008, Gerard Thomas, Nightwarrior Chronicles: All Girls′ Team, page 85,

     The confidence that was temporarily humbled now returned with a cockier attitude.

   • 2011, Melanie Harvey, Indispensable Friendship & Death Collide, page 204,

     You smiling your oh-so-perfect smile and me with the biggest, cockiest grin on my face you can ever imagine. I would have been the cockiest man alive that night knowing you were going home with me.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:arrogant

Translations