What does "cocktail" mean?

Cocktail: (Stock Breeding) A horse, not of pure breed, but having only one eighth or one sixteenth impure blood in his veins. Darwin.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A mean, half-hearted fellow; a coward. [Slang, Eng.] It was in the second affair that poor little Barney showed he was a cocktail. Thackeray.
  2. 3.(Zoöl.) A species of rove beetle; -- so called from its habit of elevating the tail.

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