cocky
adjective
- overly confident; arrogant and boastful
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈkɒki/ / /ˈkɔkɪj/ / /ˈkɑki/
adj
Etymology: From 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.”
noun
Etymology: The noun is derived from cock(atoo) + -y (diminutive suffix). The verb is derived from the noun.
- 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.”
- 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.”
verb
Etymology: The noun is derived from cock(atoo) + -y (diminutive suffix). The verb is derived from the noun.
- 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.”