Meanings
plural cockatoo farmers
- AustraliaderogatoryobsoleteA small-scale farmer.
This is the dwelling of a cockatoo-farmer, the humble agriculturist who makes the most of his thirty or forty acres of land,[…]
1911, The Academy, volume 81, page 4152 more examples
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.
1875, Anthony Trollope, edited by Bradford Allen Booth, The Tireless Traveler: Twenty Letters to the Liverpool Mercury, page 177“ Does it pay to breed cockatoos ?” said Archie innocently. “Don′t be the death o′ me, Johnnie. A cockatoo farmer is just a crofter.[…]”
1888, William Gordon Stables, From Squire to Squatter, page 182
Origin
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.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
cockatoo farmer. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cockatoo%20farmer
“cockatoo farmer.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cockatoo%20farmer. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cockatoo farmer,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cockatoo%20farmer.
Source: cockatoo farmer on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.