cup

Etymology

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.

noun

1. A concave vessel for drinking from, usually made of opaque material (as opposed to a glass) and with a handle.
   In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property. 2013-06-22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68
   Pour the tea into the cup.
2. The contents of said vessel.
   I drank two cups of water but still felt thirsty.
3. A customary unit of measure
   1. (US) A US unit of liquid measure equal to 8 fluid ounces (¹⁄₁₆ of a US gallon; 236.5882365 mL) or 240 mL.
   2. (Canada) A Canadian unit of measure equal to 8 imperial ounces (¹⁄₂₀ imperial gallon; 227.3 mL) or 250 mL.
   3. (UK, dated) A British unit of measure equal to ¹⁄₂ imperial pint (10 imperial ounces; 284 mL) or 300 mL.
   4. (Australia, New Zealand) A metric unit of measure equal to 250 mL.
4. A trophy in the shape of an oversized cup.
   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. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   The World Cup is awarded to the winner of a quadrennial football tournament.
5. A contest for which a cup is awarded.
   The World Cup is the world's most widely watched sporting event.
6. (soccer) The main knockout tournament in a country, organised alongside the league.
   Until it was disbanded in 1999, the European Cup-Winners Cup was contested annually by the winners of Europe's national cups. 2002, Rob Dimery, Peter Watts, Guinness world records, Gullane Children's Books
   Wallace had the unique distinction of being the only player ever to play in the English, Welsh and Scottish Cups in the same season. 2011, Michael Grant, Rob Robertson, The Management: Scotland's Great Football Bosses, Birlinn
   One week earlier, they had lost 5-2 to Borussia Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal [the German cup] final in Berlin. 2014, Martí Perarnau, Pep Confidential: Inside Pep Guardiola's First Season at Bayern Munich, Birlinn
7. (golf) A cup-shaped object placed in the target hole.
   The ball just misses the cup.
8. (in combination) Any of various sweetened alcoholic drinks.
   cider cup
   gin cup
   claret cup
9. (US, Canada) A rigid concave protective covering for the male genitalia.
   Players of contact sports are advised to wear a cup.
   Boys, I thought I told you to let the store tell you what cup size you needed. Mar 27 2000, Bill Amend, FoxTrot (comic)
10. One of the two parts of a brassiere which each cover a breast.
    The cups are made of a particularly uncomfortable material.
    1. Prefixed with a letter, used as a measurement of bra or breast size.
       "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." 2010, Tom Clancy, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Books 1-6, page 1149
11. (mathematics) The symbol ∪ denoting union and similar operations.
    Coordinate term: cap
12. (tarot) A suit of the minor arcana in tarot, or one of the cards from the suit.
13. (ultimate frisbee) A defensive style characterized by a three player near defense cupping the thrower; or those three players.
14. A flexible concave membrane used to temporarily attach a handle or hook to a flat surface by means of suction.
15. Anything shaped like a cup.
    the cup of an acorn
    The cowslip's golden cup no more I see. 1745, William Shenstone, Elegy VIII
    Even if the parts are thicknessed by machine, check for and plane out any cup with a bench plane. 2003, Garrett Hack, The Handplane Book, page 143
16. (medicine, historical) A cupping glass or other vessel or instrument used to produce the vacuum in cupping.
17. (figurative) That which is to be received or indured; that which is allotted to one; a portion of blessings and afflictions.

verb

1. (transitive) To form into the shape of a cup, particularly of the hands.
   Cup your hands and I'll pour some rice into them.
2. (transitive) To hold something in cupped hands.
   He cupped the ball carefully in his hands.
3. (transitive) To pour (a liquid, drink, etc.) into a cup.
   We are cupping some new brands of coffee today.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To supply with cups of wine.
5. (transitive, surgery, archaic) To apply a cupping apparatus to; to subject to the operation of cupping.
6. (transitive, engineering) To make concave or in the form of a cup.
   to cup the end of a screw