n.
- an alcoholic drink consisting of a spirit mixed with other ingredients, such as fruit juice.
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as modifier]
relating to or associated with cocktail drinking or formal social occasions:
a cocktail dress.
- a dish consisting of small pieces of food, typically served as an hors d'oeuvre:
a prawn cocktail.
- a mixture of substances or factors, especially when dangerous or unpleasant:
a potent cocktail of drugs.
Etymology
C17: from cock1 + tail1; earlier denoting a horse with a docked tail, later a racehorse which was not a thoroughbred (through having a cock-tailed horse in its pedigree).