cockie

comparative cockier · superlative cockiest

1. alternativerareAlternative spelling of cocky.

   You are a cockie chap to go again a man axing where and what you 'a been when you are axing a place, [...]

   1876, [Sarah Tytler, pseudonym of Henrietta Keddie], “What She Came Through”, in Donald McLeod, editor, Good Words, volume XVII, London: Daldy, Isbister & Co. […], →OCLC, chapter XII (A New Day’s-Man at the Manor), page 250

   1 more example

   No more being cockie. This is, as of now, an official operation. I do not take anymore chances for foolish reasons. I have to do this job absolutely right the first time. This is the only shot any of us are going to have, I'm afraid.

   2009, D. K. Hale, chapter 8, in Curiosity is Deadly, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 112

plural cockies

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of cocky (“term of endearment”).

   They're not going to stand for a couple of actors bossing the place [The Old Vic theatre] around any more. We shall be out, old cockie.

   1940s, Francis Beckett, quoting Ralph Richardson speaking to Laurence Olivier, “The War and the Old Vic”, in Laurence Olivier, London: Haus Publishing, published 2005, →ISBN, page 72

plural cockies

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of cocky (“cockatoo; cockatoo farmer”).

   That chap could be one of them. Or it could be the local butcher or newsagent, or cow cockie. We don't know. We've got to keep going.

   2001, Peter Doyle, The Devil’s Jump, Milsons Point, N.S.W.: Arrow/Random House, →ISBN; The Devil’s Jump (A Dark Passage Book), 1st American edition, Portland, Or.: Verse Chorus Press, 2008, →ISBN, page 255

   2 more examples

   He smacked his lips a couple of times and grimaced. God, his mouth tastled like the bottom of a cockie’s cage. Probably smelt as appealing too.

   2011, Barry Simiana, chapter 15, in A Touch of Evil, [Morrisville, N.C.?]: Nitewriter Media, →ISBN, page 131

   Joseph was a cockie, a small-scale farmer. Such farmers were called cockies in the early days of European settlement in Australia because, like the cockatoos that weaved and screeched above them, they made their homes on the edges of creeks and permanent waterholes.

   2018, Jeremy Ward, “The McCullochs and the Kimlins”, in Dressmakers, Preachers and Cockies: A Family History Memoir, Tingalpa, Qld.: Boolarong Press, →ISBN, page 4