sheep cocky
noun Australian /NZ informal
A small-scale sheep farmer: there’s no money in wool — most of the sheep cockies have gone into cotton...
- He was a retired sheep-cocky wary of anything not to do with farming.
- Dad was a sheep cocky, so I'm a sheep cocky.
- This old sheep cocky and his missus had been walking along the top of a sandbank.
Origin
Late 19th century: from sheep + cocky2 (from the Australian sense of cockatoo 'a small-scale farmer').