Word Study
cocktail
CIDE DICTIONARY
cocktail, n.
- A beverage made of brandy, whisky, or gin, iced, flavored, and sweetened. [1913 Webster]
- A horse, not of pure breed, but having only one eighth or one sixteenth impure blood in his veins. Darwin. [1913 Webster]
- A mean, half-hearted fellow; a coward. [1913 Webster]"It was in the second affair that poor little Barney showed he was a cocktail." [1913 Webster]
- A species of rove beetle; -- so called from its habit of elevating the tail. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
cocktail, n.
1 a usu. alcoholic drink made by mixing various spirits, fruit juices, etc.
2 a dish of mixed ingredients (fruit cocktail; shellfish cocktail).
3 any hybrid mixture.
1 a usu. alcoholic drink made by mixing various spirits, fruit juices, etc.
2 a dish of mixed ingredients (fruit cocktail; shellfish cocktail).
3 any hybrid mixture.
Idiom
cocktail dress a usu. short evening dress suitable for wearing at a drinks party. cocktail stick a small pointed stick for serving an olive, cherry, small sausage, etc.
Etymology
orig. unkn.: cf. earlier sense 'docked horse' f. COCK(1): the connection is unclear
THESAURUS
cocktail
Cloudcuckooland, Mickey, Mickey Finn, alto-cumulus, alto-stratus, anvil cloud, aperitif, banner cloud, billowy cloud, cap cloud, chaser, cirro-cumulus, cirro-fillum, cirro-nebula, cirro-stratus, cirro-velum, cirrus, cirrus cloud, cirrus haze, cirrus stripe, cloud, cloud band, cloud bank, cloud drift, cloud mass, cloud street, cloudland, cloudling, cloudscape, cottony cloud, cumulo-cirro-stratus, cumulo-cirrus, cumulo-nimbus, cumulo-stratus, cumulus, cumulus cloud, curl cloud, doch-an-dorrach, drink, eye-opener, fleecy cloud, fractocumulus, high fog, highball, knockout drops, mackerel sky, mammatocumulus, mixed drink, mushroom cloud, nightcap, nimbus, nimbus cloud, parting cup, pousse-cafe, punch, rain cloud, scud, snail cloud, squall cloud, stirrup cup, storm cloud, strato-cumulus, stratus, stratus cloud, sundowner, thundercloud, thunderhead, water carrier, wee doch-an-dorrach, woolpackROGET THESAURUS
cocktail
Drunkenness
N drunkenness, intemperance, drinking, inebriety, inebriation, ebriety, ebriosity, insobriety, intoxication, temulency, bibacity, wine bibbing, comtation, potation, deep potations, bacchanals, bacchanalia, libations, bender, oinomania, dipsomania, delirium tremens, alcohol, alcoholism, mania a potu, drink, alcoholic drinks, blue ruin, grog, port wine, punch, punch bowl, cup, rosy wine, flowing bowl, drop, drop too much, dram, beer, aguardiente, apple brandy, applejack, brandy, brandy smash, chain lightning, champagne, cocktail, gin, ginsling, highball, peg, rum, rye, schnapps, sherry, sling, uisquebaugh, usquebaugh, whisky, xeres, drunkard, sot, toper, tippler, bibber, wine-bibber, lush, hard drinker, gin drinker, dram drinker, soaker, sponge, tun, love pot, toss pot, thirsty soul, reveler, carouser, Bacchanal, Bacchanalian, Bacchal, Bacchante, devotee to Bacchus, bum, guzzler, tavern haunter, drunk, tipsy, intoxicated, inebrious, inebriate, inebriated, in one's cups, in a state of intoxication, temulent, temulentive, bombed, smashed, fuddled, mellow, cut, boozy, fou, fresh, merry, elevated, flustered, disguised, groggy, beery, top-heavy, potvaliant, glorious, potulent, squiffy, overcome, overtaken, whittled, screwed, tight, primed, corned, raddled, sewed up, lushy, nappy, muddled, muzzy, obfuscated, maudlin, crapulous, dead drunk, woozy, buzzed, flush, flushed, inter pocula, in liquor, the worse for liquor, having had a drop too much, half seas over, three sheets in the wind, three sheets to the wind, under the table, drunk as a lord, drunk as a skunk, drunk as a piper, drunk as a fiddler, drunk as Chloe, drunk as an owl, drunk as David's sow, drunk as a wheelbarrow, drunken, bibacious, sottish, given to drink, addicted to drink, addicted to the bottle, toping, nunc est bibendum, Bacchus ever fair and young, drink down all unkindness, O that men should put an enemy in their mouths to.For further exploring for "cocktail" in Webster Dictionary Online
