cocktail

Unknown; many unproven stories exist. The word first appeared in 1806 (see citation below).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɒkteɪl/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

cocktail (plural cocktails)

1. A mixed alcoholic beverage.

   Synonyms: mixed drink, (abbreviation) ckt

   They visited a bar noted for its wide range of cocktails.

   • 1806 May 6, “Rum! Rum! Rum!”, in Balance and Columbian Repository‎, volume v, number 18, New York: Hudson, page 142:

     [...] a certain candidate has placed in his account of Loss and Gain, the following items:-- LOSS [...] 411 glasses bitters[,] 25 do. cock-tail

   • 1806 May 13, “Communication”, in Balance and Columbian Repository‎, volume v, number 19, New York: Hudson, page 146:

     Cock tail, then, is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters — it is vulgarly called 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.

   • 1904, Charlotte Bryson Taylor, “Chapter VI”, in In the Dwellings of the Wilderness:

     Deane opened the fray by declaring, à propos of dinners, that the only proper way to create a cocktail of the genus Martini was to add a half-spoonful of sherry after the other ingredients had been satisfactorily mixed, if at all.

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, “Chapter 8”, in Babbitt:

     He moved majestically down to mix the cocktails. As he chipped ice, as he squeezed oranges, as he collected vast stores of bottles, glasses, and spoons at the sink in the pantry, he felt as authoritative as the bartender at Healey Hanson's saloon.

2. (by extension) A mixture of other substances or things.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hodgepodge

   Scientists found a cocktail of pollutants in the river downstream from the chemical factory.

   a cocktail of illegal drugs

   • 2013, Andrew Farmer, Managing Environmental Pollution, Routledge, →ISBN, page 22:

     Motor vehicles, for example, emit a cocktail of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, particulates, heavy metals and (for diesel) sulphur dioxide.

3. A horse, not of pure breed, but having only one eighth or one sixteenth impure blood in its veins.
   • 1868, Charles Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, volume ii, John Murray, page 11:

     A “cock-tail” is a horse not purely bred, but with only one-eighth or one-sixteenth impure blood in his veins

4. (UK, slang, dated) A mean, half-hearted fellow.

   Synonym: coward

   • 1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], OCLC 809623158:

     It 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.

cocktail (comparative more cocktail, superlative most cocktail)

1. (obsolete) Ostentatiously lacking in manners.
   • 1830, Sporting Magazine:

     It looks very cocktail to be seen riding through the streets of London in a scarlet coat ;

   • 1840, The Sporting magazine:

     The Prince had nothing particular about him but a monstrous smart whip with a gold stag for a handle, which was pronounced a very cocktail looking instrument by the Leicestershire farmers, with whom His Serene Highness is no favorite

   • 2008, Christine Kelly, Mrs Duberly's War: Journal and Letters from the Crimea, 1854-6, →ISBN:

     She always goes about with a brace of loaded revolvers in her belt!! Very cocktail and no occasion for it

cocktail (third-person singular simple present cocktails, present participle cocktailing, simple past and past participle cocktailed)

1. (transitive) To adulterate (fuel, etc.) by mixing in other substances.
2. (transitive) To treat (a person) to cocktails.

   He dined and cocktailed her at the most exclusive bars and restaurants.

• swizzle
• See also Thesaurus:alcoholic beverage

• Michael Quinion (2004), “Cocktail”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.

Borrowed from English cocktail, which is of unclear origin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔkteːl/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cock‧tail

cocktail m (plural cocktails, diminutive cocktailtje n)

1. cocktail

• cocktailbar
• cocktailjurk
• cocktailparty
• cocktailsaus
• molotovcocktail

• koktaili

Borrowed from English cocktail, which is of unclear origin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkoktɑi̯l/, [ˈko̞kt̪ɑi̯l]
• IPA^(key): /ˈkoktei̯l/, [ˈko̞kt̪e̞i̯l]
• Syllabification^(key): cock‧tail

cocktail

1. cocktail (mixed drink)

• juomasekoitus
• kimara

From English cocktail, which is of unclear origin.

• IPA^(key): /kɔk.tɛl/

• Audio

  (file)

cocktail m (plural cocktails)

1. cocktail
2. (metonymically) cocktail party

• cocktail de crevettes
• cocktail Molotov

• “cocktail”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Unadapted borrowing from English cocktail, which is of unclear origin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔk.tel/[1]
• Rhymes: -ɔktel

cocktail m (invariable)

1. cocktail
2. cocktail party

From English cocktail.

cocktail m (definite singular cocktailen, indefinite plural cocktailer, definite plural cocktailene)

1. cocktail

• “cocktail” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From English cocktail.

cocktail m (definite singular cocktailen, indefinite plural cocktailar, definite plural cocktailane)

1. cocktail

• “cocktail” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• cocteil

Unadapted borrowing from English cocktail or French cocktail.

cocktail n (plural cocktailuri)

1. cocktail

cocktail m (plural cocktails or cocktail)

1. Alternative spelling of cóctel

Unadapted borrowing from English cocktail, which is of unclear origin.

cocktail c

1. cocktail

• cocktailparty
• cocktailpåse
• molotovcocktail

• cốc tay

From English cocktail, which is of unclear origin.

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kok̚˧˦ taːj˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kok̚˦˧˥ taːj˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [kok̚˦˥ taːj˧˧]
• Phonetic: côốc tai

cocktail

1. cocktail

• rượu cốctay