cocktail flu
- noun
- /ˈkɒk.teɪl flu/
- Informal
:
resaca
- I woke up with a terrible cocktail flu after last night's party.
Examples
-
Many people experience cocktail flu after a night of heavy partying.
-
She texted her coworkers that she was staying home with a case of cocktail flu.
-
After the wedding, he spent all Sunday recovering from cocktail flu.
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Do you think I have cocktail flu from last weekend?
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After the wedding, he spent all Sunday recovering from cocktail flu.
-
Many people experience cocktail flu after a night of heavy partying.
-
I woke up with a terrible cocktail flu after last night's party.
Synonyms
95
3.0
A feeling of sickness after drinking alcohol, often with headache and nausea
A hangover after drinking too much beer
A very bad headache or hangover after drinking too much alcohol
Antonyms
How Severe
95
3.0
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
cocktail + flu
The compound combines 'cocktail' (an alcoholic mixed drink) with 'flu' (an illness) in a straightforward, compositional way to signal an illness caused by drinking cocktails — i.e., a hangover or mild alcohol-related sickness. The use is humorous/metaphorical but predictable from the constituents and similar figurative patterns (e.g., 'man flu'), so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Cocktail flu is a joking name that may come from the feeling after drinking many cocktails: the mix of drinks can make you feel tired, weak and sick, almost like the flu. That's why the phrase now means a bad 'hangover' or a mild illness after a night of heavy drinking.