From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishaperitifa‧per‧i‧tif /əˌperəˈtiːf/ noun [countable] DFDan alcoholic drink that people drink before a meal
Examples from the Corpus
aperitif• It can serve as aperitif or dessert.• Your private beach Enjoy a cool aperitif Can you think of anywhere better for breakfast?• That evening, he and Elinor drank aperitifs in the summer salon.• It was still early for dinner, so they had aperitifs at a cafe in a street near the Gritti.• They have a variety of interesting reception options including aperitifs in the famous London Zoo Aquarium.• Over aperitifs, there was a chance to mingle with friends old and new, before sitting down to luncheon.• It starts with a potent aperitif called Mulsum which takes twenty four hours to mature.• Nora is distinctly gloomy tonight-perhaps on account of the seaweed aperitif.Origin aperitif (1800-1900) French apéritif, from Medieval Latin aperitivus, from Latin aperire; → APERTURE