Etimology
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
cup (plural cups)
A concave vessel for drinking, usually made of opaque material (as opposed to a glass) and with a handle.
The contents of said vessel.
A customary unit of measure
A trophy in the shape of an oversized cup.
A contest for which a cup is awarded.
(soccer) The main knockout tournament in a country, organised alongside the league.
(golf) A cup-shaped object placed in the target hole.
(in combination) Any of various sweetened alcoholic drinks.
(US, Canada) A rigid concave protective covering for the male genitalia.
One of the two parts of a brassiere which each cover a breast.
(mathematics) The symbol ∪ {\displaystyle \cup } denoting union and similar operations.
(tarot) A suit of the minor arcana in tarot, or one of the cards from the suit.
(ultimate frisbee) A defensive style characterized by a three player near defense cupping the thrower; or those three players.
A flexible concave membrane used to temporarily attach a handle or hook to a flat surface by means of suction.
Anything shaped like a cup.
(medicine, historical) A cupping glass or other vessel or instrument used to produce the vacuum in cupping.
(figurative) That which is to be received or indured; that which is allotted to one; a portion of blessings and afflictions.
Examples
Coordinate terms: mug, pannikin
In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.
Pour the tea into the cup.
Synonym: cupful
I drank two cups of water but still felt thirsty.
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.
The World Cup is awarded to the winner of a quadrennial football tournament.
The World Cup is the world's most widely watched sporting event.
Until it was disbanded in 1999, the European Cup-Winners Cup was contested annually by the winners of Europe's national cups.
Wallace had the unique distinction of being the only player ever to play in the English, Welsh and Scottish Cups in the same season.
One week earlier, they had lost 5-2 to Borussia Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal [the German cup] final in Berlin.
The ball just misses the cup.
cider cup
gin cup
claret cup
Synonym: box
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.
The cups are made of a particularly uncomfortable material.
"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."
Coordinate term: cap
Synonym: suction cup
the cup of an acorn
The cowslip's golden cup no more I see.
Even if the parts are thicknessed by machine, check for and plane out any cup with a bench plane.
O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
verb
cup (third-person singular simple present cups, present participle cupping, simple past and past participle cupped)
(transitive) To form into the shape of a cup, particularly of the hands.
(transitive) To hold something in cupped hands.
(transitive) To pour (a liquid, drink, etc.) into a cup.
(transitive, obsolete) To supply with cups of wine.
(transitive, surgery, archaic) To apply a cup or cupping apparatus to; to subject to the operation of cupping.
(transitive, engineering) To make concave or in the form of a cup.
Examples
Cup your hands and I'll pour some rice into them.
He cupped the ball carefully in his hands.
We are cupping some new brands of coffee today.
Cup us, till the world go round.
to cup the end of a screw