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cockatoo farmer

noun

Etymology

Probably refers to the practice of working a small patch of land for a short period before moving on, in the manner of a feeding cockatoo. Alternatively so called to compare the farmers with the common sulphur-crested cockatoo, which come down on the newly sown cornfields in myriads.

Definitions

  1. A small-scale farmer.

    • The cockatoo farmer of South Australia lives a plentiful but not a picturesque life, and unless he gets hopelessly into debt is his own master.
    • “ Does it pay to breed cockatoos ?” said Archie innocently. “Don′t be the death o′ me, Johnnie. A cockatoo farmer is just a crofter.[…]”
    • This is the dwelling of a cockatoo-farmer, the humble agriculturist who makes the most of his thirty or forty acres of land,[…]

The neighborhood

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sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA