cocky
UK/ˈkɒki/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈkɔkɪj/
cocky adjective: overly confident; arrogant and boastful. Also the clipping of cockatoo farmer.
Adjective
cocky (comparative cockier, superlative cockiest)
- 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; [...]1794, Alexander Ross; [Joseph Ritson, compiler], “Song XXVII. What Ails the Lasses at Me. […] [Billet by Jeany Gradden.]”, in Scotish Songs. In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for J[oseph]...
- 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.1819 November 13, W[illia]m Cobbett, “To Henry Hunt, Esq.”, in Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register, volume 35, number 12, London: Printed and sold by William Benbow, […], →OCLC, column 376
- Synonyms:
- airy, arrogant, chesty, authoritarian, biggity, big-headed, blustery, turgescent, boastful, lordly
Noun (1)
cocky (plural cockies)
- 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?].1693, Will[iam] Congreve, The Old Batchelour, a Comedy. […], London: […] Peter Buck, […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 31
- 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.1725, Desiderius Erasmus, “The Young Man and the Harlot”, in N[athan] Bailey, transl., All the Familiar Colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus, of Roterdam, Concerning Men, Manners, and Things, Translated...
Noun (2)
cocky (plural cockies)
- 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...1868 October, M. G. Sleeper, “Pets and Sports in Tasmania”, in Merry’s Museum, for Boys and Girls, volume 1 (New Series), number 10, Boston, Mass.: Horace B. Fuller, publisher, […], published 1869...
- "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.1923, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Willie Struthers and Kangaroo”, in Kangaroo, London: Martin Secker […], →OCLC, page 229
Verb
cocky (third-person singular simple present cockies, present participle cockying, simple past and past participle cockied)
- 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...1919, C. Hampton Thorp, “About Various Things”, in A Handful of Ausseys, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, →OCLC, page 116
- I remained about a year, cockying, clearing land, and herd-recording as a servant of the Department of Agriculture.1939 October, J[ohn] W[illiam] Robertson Scott, editor, The Countryman: An Illustrated Review & Miscellany of Rural Life and Work, volume XX, Idbury; Kingham, Oxfordshire: J. W. Robertson Scott...
- Synonyms:
- cockatoo
Also used as
cocky is also the clipping of cockatoo farmer.
cocky meaning in Tagalog, Indonesian and Vietnamese
cocky in Tagalog
- overly confident
- mayabang, arrogante, asbag
cocky in Indonesian
- overly confident
- pongah
cocky in Vietnamese
- overly confident
- kiêu ngạo, ngạo mạn
Examples of cocky in a sentence
- I dare say I was one of the least cocky creatures in existence these days.1996, Knut Hamsun, translated by Sverre Lyngstad, Hunger, Edinburgh: Canongate Books, →ISBN; republished Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2016...
- Now, cocky, ye may gang about your buſineſs; when ye come back, I'ſe tauk with you in another ſtile.1757, [Tobias Smollett], The Reprisal: Or, The Tars of Old England. […], London: […] R[oberts] Baldwin, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene ix, page...
- The little cocky seems to have been half mad; and well he might.1825 April 2, “To the Freeholders of Ireland. Letter II.”, in William Cobbett, editor, Cobbett’s Weekly Register, volume LIV, number 1...
- 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!1868 October, M. G. Sleeper, “Pets and Sports in Tasmania”, in Merry’s Museum, for Boys and Girls, volume 1 (New Series), number 10...
Synonyms of cocky
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- bombastic
- conceited
- disdainful
- domineering
- egotistical
- entitled
- flaunting
- full of oneself
- grandiose
- hankty
- haughty
- high-handed
- high-hat
- high and mighty
- highfalutin
- hoity-toity
- holier-than-thou
- hubristic
- hubristical
- imperious
- inflated
- insolent
- la-di-da
- ostentatious
- overbearing
- overweening
- pompous
- presumptuous
- pretentious
- priggish
Forms of cocky
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | cockier |
| superlative | cockiest |
| alternative form | cockey |
| alternative form | cockie |
| Noun | |
| plural | cockies |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | cockies |
| present participle | cockying |
| past participle | cockied |
| past | cockied |
Origin of cocky
From cock (“male domestic chicken”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense of ‘having the quality of’).
From cock (“male domestic chicken”) + -y (diminutive suffix).
The noun is derived from cock(atoo) + -y (diminutive suffix). The verb is derived from the noun.
Words formed from cocky
- cockily
- cockiness
- spud cocky
- boss cocky
- cocky apple
- cocky chaff
- cocky country
- cocky farmer
- cocky gate
- cocky's joy
- cow cocky
- sheep cocky
Words that rhyme with cocky
Questions about cocky
- What does cocky mean?
- Cocky means overly confident; arrogant and boastful.
- What is cocky in Tagalog?
- Cocky in Tagalog is mayabang, arrogante, asbag. See Cocky meaning in Tagalog.
- How do you use cocky in a sentence?
- I dare say I was one of the least cocky creatures in existence these days.
- What part of speech is cocky?
- Cocky can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce cocky?
- Cocky is pronounced /ˈkɒki/ (UK).
Words near cocky in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cocky (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-cocky.oga.
Cite this entry: “cocky.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cocky. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.