Cocktail

Origin

Unknown, many unproven stories exist. The word first appeared in 1806 (see citation below). The non-drink sense is by extension of the drink sense.

Full definition of cocktail

Noun

1. A mixed alcoholic beverage.They visited a pub noted for the wide range of cocktails they serve.
• 1806, 13 May 1806 edition of Balance and Columbian Repository, published by Hudson, New York, (first appearance in print):Cocktail is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters — it is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head.
2. A mixture of other substances.Scientists found a cocktail of pollutants in the river downstream from the chemical factory.a cocktail of illegal drugs
3. A horse, not of pure breed, but having only one eighth or one sixteenth impure blood in its veins.
4. (UK, slang, dated) A mean, half-hearted fellow; a coward.
• ThackerayIt was in the second affair that poor little Barney showed he was a cocktail.
5. A species of rove beetle, so called from its habit of elevating the tail.

Synonyms

• mixed drink

Derived terms

Adjective

1. festive, lively
• Fitzgerald Gatsby|III...now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music and the opera of voices pitches a key higher.