cocktail dress

[kok-teyl dres]

noun

1. a semiformal, typically short dress, such as one might wear to a cocktail party.

   With a flouncy knee-length skirt and crisply tailored collar, this satin-organza cocktail dress serves up fun with a dash of formality.

Example Sentences

The big sale includes cocktail dresses worn by the actress and the magazine owner's famed silk smoking jackets.

From BBC

At a New Year’s Eve event in a Sheraton Hotel ballroom in West Des Moines, jeans and cowboy boots outnumbered tuxedos and cocktail dresses, and Miller Lite seemed more popular than champagne.

From Seattle Times

Three society women in cocktail dresses stare up at the camera, each with her right fist raised in the Black Panther salute.

From New York Times

But turns out, cocktail dresses existed long before then as women gradually entered the workforce and took on new roles within a more progressive society.

From Salon

“A perky and heavily perfumed brunette in a red cocktail dress.”

From New York Times