cup
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: kŭp
ipa: /kʌp/
note: Northern England, Ottawa Valley
ipa: /kʊp/
rhymes: -ʌp
Forms: form: cups
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English cuppe, coppe, from the merger of Old English cuppe (“cup”) and Old English copp (“cup, vessel”).
Old English cuppe is a borrowing from Late Latin cuppa, itself of obscure origin, but probably from earlier Latin cūpa (“tub, cask”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewp- (“a hollow”). Old English copp, however, is from Proto-West Germanic *kopp (“round object, bowl, vessel, knoll, summit, crown of the head”), from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve, arch”) (whence also obsolete English cop (“top, summit, crown of the head”), German Kopf (“top, head”)).
The Middle English word was further reinforced by Anglo-Norman cupe and Old French cope, coupe, from Latin cuppa. Compare also Saterland Frisian Kop (“cup”), West Frisian kop (“cup”), Dutch kop (“cup”), German Low German Koppke, Köppke (“cup”), Danish kop (“cup”), Swedish kopp (“cup”). Doublet of coupe, hive, and keeve.
Senses: examples: text: Pour the tea into the cup.
coordinate_terms: mug
pannikin
glosses: A concave vessel for drinking, usually made of opaque material (as opposed to a glass) and with a handle.
examples: text: I drank two cups of water but still felt thirsty.
text: In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.
ref: 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
synonyms: cupful
glosses: The contents of said vessel.
glosses: A customary unit of measure
A US unit of liquid measure equal to 8 fluid ounces (¹⁄₁₆ of a US gallon; 236.5882365 mL) or 240 mL.
glosses: A customary unit of measure
A Canadian unit of measure equal to 8 imperial ounces (¹⁄₂₀ imperial gallon; 227.3 mL) or 250 mL.
glosses: A customary unit of measure
A British unit of measure equal to ¹⁄₂ imperial pint (10 imperial ounces; 284 mL) or 300 mL.
glosses: A customary unit of measure
A metric unit of measure equal to 250 mL.
examples: text: The World Cup is awarded to the winner of a quadrennial football tournament.
text: Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: A trophy in the shape of an oversized cup.
examples: text: The World Cup is the world's most widely watched sporting event.
glosses: A contest for which a cup is awarded.
examples: text: Until it was disbanded in 1999, the European Cup-Winners Cup was contested annually by the winners of Europe's national cups.
ref: 2002, Rob Dimery, Peter Watts, Guinness world records, Gullane Children's Books, →ISBN:
text: Wallace had the unique distinction of being the only player ever to play in the English, Welsh and Scottish Cups in the same season.
ref: 2011, Michael Grant, Rob Robertson, The Management: Scotland's Great Football Bosses, Birlinn, →ISBN:
text: One week earlier, they had lost 5-2 to Borussia Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal [the German cup] final in Berlin.
ref: 2014, Martí Perarnau, Pep Confidential: Inside Pep Guardiola's First Season at Bayern Munich, Birlinn, →ISBN:
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
soccer
sports
glosses: The main knockout tournament in a country, organised alongside the league.
examples: text: The ball just misses the cup.
topics: golf
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A cup-shaped object placed in the target hole.
glosses: A container in which dice are held and shaken before being thrown.
examples: text: cider cup
text: gin cup
text: claret cup
glosses: Any of various sweetened alcoholic drinks.
examples: text: Players of contact sports are advised to wear a cup.
text: Boys, I thought I told you to let the store tell you what cup size you needed.
ref: 2000 March 27, Bill Amend, FoxTrot (comic):
synonyms: word: box
glosses: A rigid concave protective covering for the male genitalia.
examples: text: The cups are made of a particularly uncomfortable material.
glosses: One of the two parts of a brassiere which each cover a breast.
examples: text: "For cleavage to show up in these photos, a girl has to have C-cup breasts — at least that's what they told me once."
ref: 2010, Tom Clancy, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Books 1-6, page 1149:
glosses: One of the two parts of a brassiere which each cover a breast.
Prefixed with a letter, used as a measurement of bra or breast size.
topics: mathematics
sciences
coordinate_terms: cap
glosses: The symbol ∪ denoting union and similar operations.
topics: human-sciences
mysticism
philosophy
sciences
tarot
glosses: A suit of the minor arcana in tarot, or one of the cards from the suit.
qualifier: ultimate frisbee
glosses: A defensive style characterized by a three player near defense cupping the thrower; or those three players.
synonyms: suction cup
glosses: A flexible concave membrane used to temporarily attach a handle or hook to a flat surface by means of suction.
examples: text: the cup of an acorn
text: The cowslip's golden cup no more I see.
ref: 1745, William Shenstone, Elegy VIII:
text: Even if the parts are thicknessed by machine, check for and plane out any cup with a bench plane.
ref: 2003, Garrett Hack, The Handplane Book, page 143:
glosses: Anything shaped like a cup.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: A cupping glass or other vessel or instrument used to produce the vacuum in cupping.
examples: text: O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 26:39:
glosses: That which is to be received or indured; that which is allotted to one; a portion of blessings and afflictions.
Derived terms: acorn cup
A cup
A-cup
audiocup
band cup
breakfastcup
builder's cup
builders' cup
buttercup
cage cup
canteen cup
caudle cup
chirping cup
chop cup
claretcup
coffee cup
coffee-cup
common brown cup
creamcups
cup-and-ball
cup-and-saucer plant
cup bearer
cupbearer
cup-bearer
cupbearing
cupboard
cupcake
cup check
cup cheese
cup custard
cup discharger
cupel
Cup Final
cup final
cupflower
cup fungus
cup gall
cuphead
cup holder
cupholder
cupless
cuplet
cup lichen
cuplike
cupmaker
cupmaking
cupman
cupmate
cup moss
cup moth
cup noodles
cup of coffee
cup of joe
cup of tea
cup o' joe
cup orchid
cuppa
cupper
Cuppers
cup plant
cuppy
cup-rose
cupseed
cupset
cup shake
cup-shaped
cup-shot
cup-shotten
cup size
cupsona
cup stacking
cupster
cupstone
cupsworth
cup that cheers
cup tie
cup-tied
cup-tosser
cup towel
cupule
cupward
cupware
cupwing
cupwise
death cup
demicup
dixie cup
Dixie cup
drink from the furry cup
drinking-cup
earcup
egg cup
eggcup
elf-cup
eyecup
Faraday cup
flip cup
fringecup
fruit cup
fuddling cup
go cup
go down like a cup of cold sick
go down like a cup of sick
goldcup
golden cup
golden-cup oak
grace-cup
Grey Cup
hunter's cup
huntsman's cup
keep cup
kingcup
leafcup
league cup
let this cup pass from me
Little-Master cup
loving cup
macrocup
Magdalen cup
measuring cup
menstrual cup
mess cup
minicup
mini-cup
mini cup
monkey cup
monkey-cup
mooncup
mossycup
moustache cup
muffin cup
mustache cup
Neptune's cup
oilcup
optic cup
paper cup
parabolic cup
parting-cup
PB cup
peanut-butter cup
peanut butter cup
Pimm's cup
pimp cup
pixie cup
Pythagoras cup
Pythagorean cup
queen cup
queen's cup
shaving-cup
shooter cup
shot cup
siphon cup
sippy cup
skullcup
sneak-cup
someone's cup of tea
spit-cup
splash cup
standing cup
stirrup cup
suncup
super cup
supercup
tailcup
Tantalus cup
tea cup
tea-cup
teacup
that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee
that and a nickel will buy you a cup of coffee
that and twenty-five cents will get you a cup of coffee
there's many a slip between the cup and the lip
there's many a slip twixt cup and lip
there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip
tip cup
whitecup
wine-cup
wine cup
winecup
world cup
you can't pour from an empty cup