DCHP-3

cockabaloo

DCHP-2 (Mar 2014)
n. — Newfoundland

someone who teases; a bully.

Type: 1. Origin — A cockabaloo is a bully, or someone who is annoying you (see the 1999 quotation). It likely derives from the word cock, which is defined as 'leader, head, chief man, ruling spirit' and linked to 'cock of the school' (see OED-3, s.v. "cock" (7)). The term is described as an "old Newfoundland term" (see the 1999 and 2012 quotations).
See also DNE, s.v. "cockabaloo".

Quotations

1922
One Newfoundlander told me of having been thrown out bodily through the side of a dance hall by a gang of jealous swains and chased for a long distance by one of them, the others, six of them, tagging on behind. "[...] De cockabaloo o' de whole settlement he was. Well we fought, an' tore de clothes off each odder till we was in our naked buff, me son.[...]"
1925
"Ain't no worser don old Borland Harrod, back o' he!" asserted Tindercrack, and spat copiously. [...] "I'd sculp dat cockabaloo like I'd sculp a bedlamer. 'E got we fair ruined. I wouldn't l'ave enough o' he fer God to judge!"
1925
He'm a fine feller, I'm tellin' ye. Arr man o'sense can see dat wid one slew o' de h'eye! An'ig he t'rowed his fist in your eye, and me ole cockabaloo, you'd be gettin' y'r just uns! Take care he don't wop you out! Ye need it!
1999
Next time someone bugs you, look at him or her icily and call them a "cockabaloo." That will bring them down to size. It's an old Newfoundland term that means bully.
2012
The children's book I read — "The Adventures of Gus and Isaac: Backyard Bullies" — is written by Debbie Hanlon and illustrated by Grant Boland. The publisher describes the book this way: "When Isaac the bobtailed cat is being beaten up by the backyard bullies, Gus the seagull comes to the rescue." [...] Incidentally, Hanlon sprinkles throughout her book what she calls "colourful Newfoundland and Labrador words." Her intention is to "help keep our native tongue alive." [...] A glossary at the end of the book provides definitions of such words and phrases as afeard, gaffer, bluffs, coopied, vamps, hard ticket, cockabaloo, berg, sleveen, flake, scrawb, clout, dirty dogfish, in a dwall, bridge, slewed, skittered, scardy cat, spudgel and yarned.

References

  • DNE
  • OED-3