noun

• (chiefly British, Ireland, Newfoundland, colloquial, dated) 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?]."

noun

• (informal) 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."
• (also attributively) 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. [...']"

verb

• (intransitive, chiefly Australia, informal, historical) 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."