@LightnessRacesinOrbit: When you said "doesn't even mean that," what were you referring to? Think I misunderstood.

@LightnessRacesinOrbit: That's an interesting point. Leaving aside whether American English has any influence on British English (it does, has for decades, and does more now than ever), it pertains to me as I mostly grew up in the U.S. despite being English-on-paper and living here the last couple of decades. Now I have two questions for EL&U. :-) Oh, and Collins lists the "neat" meaning, too.

@LightnessRacesinOrbit: Perhaps. I've never heard straight used for the chilled meaning described there, nor apparently have Merriam-Webster (who do list the "neat" meaning of it).

"Bond was finishing his first straight whisky ‘on the rocks’" is the odd thing in that quote. :-) It's either straight (aka "neat"), or it's on the rocks; it can't be both. If it were his third straight whisky 'on the rocks' we'd know it was the third one he'd had in a row without drinking something else in-between. But with "first," it just doesn't make sense. Must be why he switched to martinis.

Great. Now I want a pasty.