martini

plural martinis · alternative Martini · alternative humorous hypercorrect martinus

1. countableuncountableA cocktail made with gin or vodka and vermouth.

   Will you join us at six o’clock for martinis?

   5 more examples

   My boss is out on another of his three-martini lunches.

   Even at Juneau's prices, ten dollars worth of martinis is a lot of liquor to drink in an hour.

   1961 Jan, Robert Silverberg, Amazing Stories, page 26, column 2

   Could any tiger Drink martinis, smoke cigars, And last as we do?

   c. 1963, W[ystan] H[ugh] Auden, “Symmetries & Asymmetries”, in Edward Mendelson, editor, Collected Poems, New York: Random House, published 1976, →ISBN, page 551

   He drank martini, played bridge in the club, and captured treaty-port life wickedly.

   1997, Caroline Courtauld, May Holdsworth, The Hong Kong Story, Oxford, Oxon; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 21

   I had the feeling that had he been a smoker he would have lit a cigarette at this moment. I suspected that once he had been a smoker, for he seemed as if he wished someone would offer him one. He drank martini instead.

   2006, Joan [Elizabeth] Taylor, Conversations with Mr. Prain, Hoboken, N.J.: Melville House Publishing, →ISBN, page 172

2. countableproscribedsometimesuncountableAny cocktail served in a cocktail glass, often sweet or fruity and aimed at women.

   I love the chocolate martinis at Trendy Bar!

plural Martinis · alternative martini

1. obsoleteA breech mechanism for a rifle.
2. A type of rifle using similar features.

   Now the butt of a Martini in the small of your back hurts a great deal

   1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio, published 2005, page 96

plural Martinis · alternative martini

1. countableuncountableAlternative letter-case form of martini (a cocktail made with gin or vodka and vermouth).

   My father and mother drank Martini while I had orange juice.

   2003, Virginia Ironside, Janey and Me: Growing Up with My Mother, London; New York, N.Y.: Fourth Estate, →ISBN, page 126

   2 more examples

   Only the priest and Major Hugh Edwards, a blind Englishman, drank Martini or something cheaper in the hot hours after noon and before the clumping sabots announced the working day’s end.

   1954, Eric Baume, The Mortal Sin of Father Grossard, Angus and Robertson, page 20

   They would talk while Mrs Costello smoked and drank Martini, and then there would be the sudden, jolting sound of the hoover being switched on.

   1999, Ruth Thomas, The Dance Settee and Other Stories, Edinburgh: Polygon, →ISBN, page 153

2. countableuncountableA brand of Italian vermouth available in several versions, from the Martini & Rossi company.

alternative martini

1. A surname from Italian.