cocktail

SayKOK-taylUS/ˈkɑk.teɪl/UK/ˈkɒk.teɪl//ˈkɔk.tæɪl/

Pluralcocktails

Verbcocktails, cocktailing, cocktailed

8 meanings of cocktail

Practice

1
nouncountable
A drink made by mixing alcohol with juices or other flavors.
Like mixing juice and soda together, but with alcohol added too.
She ordered a fruity cocktail at the bar.
They mixed cocktails for everyone at the party.
Note
2
nouncountable
A mix of several different things combined into one.
Like a fruit salad with many different fruits mixed together.
The medicine was a cocktail of different drugs.
Outside, the air carried a cocktail of smoke and perfume.
Similarmixture, medley, jumble, mishmash, hodgepodge
Note
3
verbtransitive
To make a fuel or product weaker by mixing in cheaper substances.
Like adding water to juice to make it go further.
Some sellers cocktail the gasoline with cheaper liquids to earn more.
They cocktailed the diesel with water to stretch their supply.
Similaradulterate, dilute, doctor, cut, contaminate
4
verbtransitive
To buy someone cocktails or take them out for mixed drinks.
Like treating a friend to ice cream, but with drinks instead.
He likes to cocktail his old friends whenever they visit.
She cocktailed the new clients after the long meeting.
Similartreat, entertain
5
nouncountable
A small beetle that lifts up the tip of its tail.
Like a little bug that raises its tail when something bothers it.
A cocktail scurried under the rotting log.
We found several cocktails beneath the damp stones.
6
nouncountable
A horse that is mostly purebred but carries a small amount of mixed blood.
Like a dog that is almost purebred but has one mixed grandparent.
The buyer passed on the cocktail and chose a thoroughbred instead.
Several cocktails were entered in the local race.
Note

Less common meanings

7
noundatedUKcountable
A weak, mean person who never puts in real effort.
It was in the second affair that poor little Barney showed he was a cocktail.
1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable FamilyHere, cocktail means a weak, mean man who does not really try.
Similarcoward
Note
8
adjectiveobsolete
Showing off rude, bad manners in a loud way.
It looks very cocktail to be seen riding through the streets of London in a scarlet coat ;
1830, Sporting MagazineHere, cocktail means showy and rude, openly lacking good manners.
She always goes about with a brace of loaded revolvers in her belt!! Very cocktail and no occasion for it
2008, Christine Kelly, Mrs Duberly's War: Journal and Letters from the CrimeaHere, cocktail means showy and rude, flaunting bad manners.
Note

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of cocktail apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From the 1600s, from "cock" (a male bird) plus "tail", first meaning a horse whose tail stood up like a rooster's. How it came to mean a mixed drink is not known.