cocktail party

noun

1. a social gathering, often held during the cocktail hour, at which cocktails and other alcoholic beverages, hors d'oeuvres, and canapés are served.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cocktail party¹

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

It’s also true that studios find ways to butter up voters all over the industry, appealing to everyone from guilds to larger critics’ groups to the Motion Picture Academy and the TV Academy, often through cocktail parties and fancy meet-and-greets.

From Vox

I thought of it as something that people could read and feel that they knew more than they did before, something that would give them material to talk about at cocktail parties.

From Quanta Magazine

Boisterous family meals, glittery cocktail parties, and gatherings to exchange presents could all become super-spreader events.

From Eater

So, maybe I should drink more while interviewing, or interview more while drinking less at cocktail parties.

From Freakonomics

Plus, you have to factor in if alcohol is a factor, which at cocktail parties it usually is and in interviews it’s usually not.

From Freakonomics

She said that her co-star, Alfre Woodard, talked to her about it a cocktail party that night.

From The Daily Beast

Linklater recalled meeting Arquette at a cocktail party shortly after the release of True Romance.

From The Daily Beast

I blame a sleepless night or free drinks at a cocktail party.

From The Daily Beast

Will the next few hours be both didactic and entertaining, providing us with ample high and lowbrow cocktail party fodder?

From The Daily Beast

At a recent cocktail party, a woman stuck out her hand and asked Glenda Bailey-Mershon if she would read her fortune.

From The Daily Beast

The Board of Inquiry, that afternoon, was more like a small and very sedate cocktail party.

From Project Gutenberg

It seemed to Lee that the young man had actually aged since the cocktail party at his house, earlier in the evening.

From Project Gutenberg

Their idea of sin in that town was to snub the wrong matron at a cocktail party; or not snub, as the case might be.

From Project Gutenberg

Now will you please tell me, if you know, whether all those invited to both the bridge party and the cocktail party are here?

From Project Gutenberg

The sort one usually gets at a cocktail party is the Bronx or Martini variety.

From Project Gutenberg