cocky

1. (informal) A familiar name for a cockatoo.Examples: "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 …"AustraliaNew-Zealandinformal

2. (also attributively) Clipping of cockatoo farmer (“small-scale farmer”); (by extension) any farmer or owner of rural land.Examples: "'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."Synonyms: cockatoo, crofterAustraliaNew-Zealandabbreviationalsoalt-ofattributiveclippinginformal

1. (intransitive, chiefly Australia, informal, historical) To operate a small-scale farm.Examples: "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."Synonyms: cockatooAustraliaNew-Zealandhistoricalinformalintransitive