AllWords.com Home

English Dictionary - With Multi-Lingual Search

  
Definitions
cocktail Twit Definition of cocktail Share Definition of cocktail on Facebook Digg:Definition of cocktail! stumble Definition of cocktail Bookmark Definition of cocktail on Delicious submit Definition of cocktail to reddit Bookmark Definition of cocktail
noun 
  1. An alcoholic beverage containing multiple types of liquor
They visited a pub noted for the wide range of cocktails they serve.
    • 1806, 13 May 1806 edition of Balance and Columbian Repository, published by Hudson, New York, (first appearance in print):
    • : Cocktail is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters " it is vulgarly called a 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.
      1. A mixture of other substances.
      "Scientists found a of pollutants in the river downstream of the chemical factory."
Translations: 
  • Dutch: cocktail(nl)m
  • French: cocktail(fr)m
  • German: Cocktail(de)n
  • Spanish: cóctel(es, coctel, m}}, {{t-, es)m
Etymology: (rfe, Editors frequently add alternative etymologies here. "cokstele" is the latest. Are any citable?)Origin uncertain, but possibly:
  • from the colorfull tail of a cock, as Webster's suggests
  • from cocktay, the English form of the French coquetier, meaning 'eggcup', in which Antoine Amédée Peychaud, an apothecary, served brandy toddy, brandy toddies mixed with his own invention, Peychaud bitters, at Masonic social gatherings in his pharmacy in New Orleans, c.1795,
  • from cokstele or cock-stick, a type of weighted stick designed for throwing at cocks as a sport. See w:Cock throwing.


     Source Definition of cocktail
  

 Find:
  Words Starting With:
  Words Ending With:
  Words Containing:
  Words That Match:

 
 Translate Into:
  
Dutch   French   German
  
Italian   Spanish
    Show results per page.

Google
 

Browse the Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 
  green quotes and commentary

   
Dictionary content provided from Wiktionary.org under the GNU Free Documentation License
Allwords Copyright 1998-2009 Allsites LLC. All rights reserved.