cocktail

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
cocktail/ˈkɒkteɪl/

▶noun

• 1 an alcoholic drink consisting of a spirit mixed with other ingredients, such as fruit juice.

  ■ [as modifier] relating to or associated with cocktail drinking or formal social occasions: a cocktail dress.

• 2 a dish consisting of small pieces of food, typically served as an hors d'oeuvre: a prawn cocktail.

• 3 a mixture of substances or factors, especially when dangerous or unpleasant: a potent cocktail of drugs.

– origin 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).