1. A toy consisting of a cup at the end of a stem to which a ball is attached by a string, the object being to toss the ball and catch it in the cup or on the spike end of the stem. Also the game played with this. = BILBOQUET 2.
1760. Goldsm., Cit. W., lxxxix. Indolence … tosses the cup-and-ball with infantine folly.
1799. Southey, Amatory Poems, Sonn. i. She held a Cup and Ball of ivory white.
1836. T. Hook, G. Gurney, III. 131. Where sat Mrs. Nubley, alone, on a sofa, playing at cup-and-ball.
2. attrib. Of a joint or bones: = Ball and socket; see BALL sb.1 19.
1854. R. Owen, in Circ. Sc. (c. 1865), II. 57/2. The cup-and-ball vertebræ in batrachian larvæ.
