- [countable] a drink usually made from a mixture of one or more spirits (= strong alcoholic drinks) and fruit juice. It can also be made without alcohol.
- a cocktail bar/cabinet/shaker
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- pre-dinner
- afternoon
- evening
- …
- make
- mix
- serve
- …
- bar
- lounge
- cabinet
- …
- [countable, uncountable] a dish of small pieces of food, usually served cold
- a prawn/shrimp cocktail
- fruit cocktail
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- prawn
- seafood
- shrimp
- …
- [countable] a mixture of different substances or elements, often ones that do not mix together well
- a lethal cocktail of drugs
- The show was a heady cocktail of jazz and political satire.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- deadly
- lethal
- heady
- …
- cocktail of
Word Originearly 17th cent.: from cock + tail. The original use was as an adjective describing a creature with a tail like that of a cock, specifically a horse with a docked tail; hence (because hunters and coach-horses were generally docked) a racehorse which was not a thoroughbred, having a cock-tailed horse in its pedigree (early 19th cent.). Sense (1) (originally US, also early 19th cent.) is perhaps an analogy, from the idea of an impure spirit.
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cocktail