Other forms: cocktails
A cocktail is a mixed drink for adults, often colourful with a little umbrella. Order a cocktail, cocktail bar, a cocktail shaker.
The classical definition is spirit, sugar, water and bitters, which is the old-fashioned exactly. Figuratively a cocktail is any potent mixture — a cocktail of drugs, a lethal cocktail. Note that the origin of the drink sense is genuinely unknown, despite a great many confident stories about it.
1nouncocktailA mixed alcoholic drink.
“At the bar, she ordered a cocktail made with rum, lime and mint.”
2nounpotentAny potent mixture.
“The river was polluted with a cocktail of chemicals from the factory.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
cocktail is a drink, or a mixture.
Cock plus tail, first of a horse with a raised tail. How the drink got the name is unknown, despite many confident theories.
Built from
From cock + tail. Early 17th century, from cock (“male bird”) + tail, in the sense “(a horse with its) tail standing up, like a cock’s”. The origin of the extension to “an alcoholic mixed drink” is unknown. One theory is that it refers to a stimulant (gingering), hence a stimulating drink; compare pick-me-up. Another attested use is for non-thoroughbred racehorses: these were considered "cock-tailed" due to their docked tails. This may have led to the term "cocktail" (sense 1) being used for an adulterated spirit.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA