cockatoo
(kɒkəˈtuː)
Forms: 7 cacato, cockatoon, crockadore, 8 cokato, cocatore, cocatoo, 8– cockatoo.
[ad. Malay kakat{uacu}a, app. immed. through Du. kaketoe; app. influenced in form by cock. Several authorities say the name represents the call of the bird: but see also quot. 1850.]
1. The name of numerous beautiful birds of the parrot kind, esp. the genus Cacatua, inhabiting Australia and the East Indian Islands, distinguished by a crest or tuft of feathers on the head, which can be raised or depressed at pleasure.
| [1616 Beaum. & Fl. Little Fr. Lawyer ii. iii, My name is Cock-a-two, use me respectively, I will be cock-o'three else.] 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 212 Cacatoes, birds like Parrats, fierce and indomitable. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 281/2 Cockatoons..have generally long Tails. 1707 W. Funnell Voy. ix. 265 The Crockadore is a Bird of various sizes..When they fly wild up and down the Woods, they will call crockadore, crockadore; for which reason they go by that name. a 1732 Gay Ep. Pulteney, They're crown'd with feathers like the cockatoo. 1779 Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 295 At Sooloo, there are no Lories; but the Cocatores have yellow tufts. 1850 Jrnl. Indian Archipelago IV. 183 Cockatoo, Malay Kakatuwah—a vice, a gripe, and also the name of the bird, no doubt referring to its powerful bill. 1854 Bushnan in Circ. Sci. (1865) I. 294/1 The cockatoo shrieks its own name. |
2. Austral. and N.Z. (colloq.) A small farmer.
| 1864 H. Kingsley Hillyars & B. in Macm. Mag. Dec. 148 The small farmers, contemptuously called ‘cockatoos’. 1874 M. A. Barker N. Zealand xv. 110 The small farmers are called Cockatoos in Australia by the squatters..who..say that, like a cockatoo, the small freeholder alights on good ground, extracts all he can from it, and then flies away. 1874 A. Bathgate Colonial Exp. xv. 195 Many words in daily use in Otago bear traces of importation from the..Australian colonies, and none betrays its Australian origin more than that used to denote the agricultural class, who are usually styled ‘Cockatoos’. Ibid. 197 The Cockatoos used to do very well from the sale of their cattle. 1874 J. A. H. Caird Notes on Sheepfarming in N.Z. v. 40 He [sc. an intending settler] can either be a squatter—i.e., a sheepfarmer, or a cockatoo, as the ordinary arable farmer is called, or a storekeeper. 1941 O. Duff N.Z. Now iv. 51 The most they [sc. sheepfarmers] can hope for is an uneasy truce with dairymen..or an alliance with Labour to control the ‘cockatoos’. |
3. a. A convict. Obs. exc. Hist. b. A lookout or sentinel acting on behalf of a person or persons engaged on some illegal activity; a ‘corner-man’. Austral. slang.
| 1827 P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 2) II. 288 It being a common trick to station a sentinel on a commanding eminence to give the alarm, while all the others divert themselves, or go to sleep. Such are known here by the name of ‘cockatoo-gangs’, from following the example of that wary bird. 1870 J. L. Burke Adv. Martin Cash viii. 123 He's the bravest man that could choose from Sydney men or Cockatoos... This name was applied to a body of desperate men, who were imprisoned on Cockatoo Island..under a strong military guard. 1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Aug. 36/1 For years those betting on the outers had to employ one or more ‘cockatoos’ to give warning when a John Hop was spotted. 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. vii. 141 Hotel licensees who indulge in after-hours trading often pay a cockatoo to warn them of the approach of police. 1953 A. Moorehead Rum Jungle iv. 52 At the entrance [to the two-up school] a door-keeper sits, known as ‘the Cockatoo’. 1966 Telegraph (Brisbane) 15 Aug. 2/7 They watched Foster (the ‘cockatoo’ or spy) point out our punters who had laid a large bet. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 2) cockatoo farmer (so cockatoo farm), cockatoo settler, cockatoo squatter, cockatoo stockman; cockatoo fence, a rough fence of logs and saplings.
In some uses with reference to the cockatoo's habit of sitting with others in a row on a fence.
| 1827 Cockatoo-gang [see sense 3]. 1856 Melbourne Punch 25 Sept. 58 Cockatoo farmer got up and catechised me. 1859 in A. F. Ridgway Voices from Auckland (1860) 51, I am, Sir, &c. A Cockatoo Settler. 1881 Chequered Career 341 Most of the cockatoo farmers in South Australia are Germans. 1884 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Melb. Mem. xxii. 155 There would be roads and cockatoo fences,..in short, all the hostile emblems of agricultural settlement. 1890 ― Miner's Rt. xliii. 377 The governor is a bigoted agriculturist; he has contracted the cockatoo complaint, I'm afraid. 1890 ― Col. Reformer xviii, The cockatoo stockmen, who are doing the ‘reviewing’, safely on the fence. 1893 Argus (Melbourne) 17 June 13/4 (Morris), Hire yourself out to a dairyman, take a contract with a rail-splitter, sign articles with a cockatoo selector; but don't touch land without knowing something about it. 1893 Funk's Stand. Dict., Cockatoo squatter, the owner of a limited right of pasturage on land granted by the government, who raises only a small amount of wool or cattle annually: used mostly in contempt. 1897 I. Scott How I Stole over 10,000 Sheep i. 7 We'll..get a job on a ‘Cockatoo’ farm somewhere. 1901 ‘M. Franklin’ My Brilliant Career viii. 60 The wire fence..had replaced an old cockatoo fence which I remembered in my childhood. |
Hence cockatoo v. intr., to sit on a fence, as the bird does; to farm in a small way. Austral. colloq.
| 1878 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Ups & Downs xx. 245 Fancy three hundred acres in Oxfordshire, with a score or two of bullocks, and twice as many black-faced Down sheep. Regular cockatooing. 1890 ― Col. Reformer xviii, The correct thing, on first arriving at a drafting yard, is to ‘cockatoo’, or sit on the rails. |