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cocky

adj
/ˈkɒk.i/CA/ˈkɑ.ki/US/ˈkɔk.i/

Etymology

From cock (“male domestic chicken”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense of ‘having the quality of’).

  1. derived from *gew-✻ — “to bend, curve, arch”
  2. inherited from *kukkaz✻ — “mass, bulge, swelling”
  3. inherited from *kokk✻
  4. inherited from *cocc✻ — “heap, pile”
  5. inherited from cokke
  6. suffixed as cocky — “cock + y”

Definitions

  1. Overly confident

    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, [...]

  2. Used as a term of endearment, originally for a person of either sex, but later primarily…

    Used 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.

  3. A familiar name for a cockatoo.

    • "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 …
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. Clipping of cockatoo farmer (“small-scale farmer”)

      Clipping of cockatoo farmer (“small-scale farmer”); (by extension) any farmer or owner of rural land.

      • We camped one evening at Narrangidgery Creek, close b’ a cocky’s ’umstead.

    2. To operate a small-scale farm.

      • 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.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for cocky. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

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