Dictionary

cockatoo farmer en · NOUN

Etymology

Probably refers to the practice of working a small patch of land for a short period before moving on, in the manner of a feeding cockatoo. Alternatively so called to compare the farmers with the common sulphur-crested cockatoo, which come down on the newly sown cornfields in myriads.

Meanings

1. (Australia, derogatory, obsolete) A small-scale farmer.
   • This is the dwelling of a cockatoo-farmer, the humble agriculturist who makes the most of his thirty or forty acres of land,[…] 1911, The Academy, volume 81, page 415:
   • The cockatoo farmer of South Australia lives a plentiful but not a picturesque life, and unless he gets hopelessly into debt is his own master. 1875, Anthony Trollope, edited by Bradford Allen Booth, The Tireless Traveler: Twenty Letters to the Liverpool Mercury, page 177:
   • “ Does it pay to breed cockatoos ?” said Archie innocently. “Don′t be the death o′ me, Johnnie. A cockatoo farmer is just a crofter.[…]” 1888, William Gordon Stables, From Squire to Squatter, page 182:

Forms