Origin: 1800-1900 Probably from cocktail horse with a tail cut short so that it looks like a male chicken's, horse of mixed breed (with such a tail), mixture (1800-1900)
1 an alcoholic drink made from a mixture of liquor and other drinks2seafood/shrimp/lobster cocktail a mixture of small pieces of fish,shrimp, or lobster, served cold with a special sauce and eaten at the beginning of a meal3a mixture of dangerous substances, especially one that you eat or drink: a deadly cocktail of alcohol and tranquilizers → see alsofruit cocktail, Molotov cocktail