Forms: α. 1–7 cuppe, (4–5 kuppe), 4–7 cupp, 6– cup, (6 Sc. culp(p). β. 3–5 cupe, 3–6 coupe, 4–5 cowpe, 6 Sc. coup, cowp. γ. 3–5 coppe, 4–5 cope, (5 coop, 6 coope). [OE. cuppe wk. fem., supposed to be ad. late L. cuppa, the source of It. coppa (close o), Pr., Sp., Pg. copa, OF. cope, cupe, coupe, rarely coppe, mod.F. coupe drinking-vessel, cup.
L. cuppa is generally held to be a differentiated form of cūpa, tub, cask, vat, which survives in F. cuve, Pr., Sp., Pg. cuba tub, etc. But beside cuppe in ME., are found two forms coupe (cowpe) and coppe, with the variants cupe, cope, coope. Of these coupe (cowpe) directly represents OF. coupe; cupe prob. represents the earlier OF. spelling of the same word, but may be merely a variant of cuppe. The status of coppe is not so clear: it may also represent OF. cope (sometimes coppe), or it may be due to mixture of cuppe and OE. copp: see COP sb.1; in the form coppes it is impossible to distinguish between the pl. of copp and that of coppe. The rare forms cope, coope, prob. represent OF. cope. Nearly all these by-forms of the word became obs. before 1500; only cuppe survives in mod. English cup.]
I. A drinking-vessel, or something resembling it.
1. A small open vessel for liquids, usually of hemispherical or hemi-spheroidal shape, with or without a handle; a drinking-vessel. The common form of cup (e.g., a tea-cup or coffee-cup) has no stem; but the larger and more ornamental forms (e.g., a wine-cup or chalice) may have a stem and foot, as also a lid or cover; in such case cup is sometimes applied specifically to the concave part that receives the liquid.
α. cuppe, cupp, cup. (Sc. culp, culpp, belongs perh. to β.)
c. 1000. Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 122/37. Caupus vel obba, cuppe.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 290. Nime þonne ane cuppan, do an lytel wearmes wætres on innan.
c. 1205. Lay., 14996. Heo þa cuppe [later t. bolle] bitahte þan kinge.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2318. Ȝure on haueð is cuppe stolen.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 13402 (Cott.). Þai fild a cupp [v.r. cope, 2 MSS. cuppe] þan son in hast.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 157. Monkes haf grete kuppes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 109. Cuppe, ciphus, patera, cuppa.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 70. I haue putte … wyn in my cuppe.
1542. Inventories (1815), 74 (Jam.). Item, twa culpis gilt … Item, twa culppis with thair coveris gilt.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 68. Massiue gould cups.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., V. iii. 56. Fill the Cuppe … Ile pledge you a mile to the bottome.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 444. Mean while at Table Eve … thir flowing cups With pleasant liquors crown’d.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 250. Nor the coy maid … Shall kiss the cup to pass it to the rest.
1842. Tennyson, Vision of Sin, IV. ix. Fill the cup, and fill the can.
1872. E. Peacock, Mabel Heron, I. viii. 136. He half filled a leather cup he carried in his pocket.
β. cupe, coupe, cowpe.
c. 1275. Lay., 24612. Mid gildene coupe [earlier t. bolle].
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4858 (Cott.). A siluer cupe [3 later MSS. coupe]. Ibid. (a. 1300), 7728 (Cott.). A cupe [F. cuppe, G. & T. coupe] he tok and a sper. (Cf. OF. Rois 104 pristrent la lance e la cupe ki fud al chief Saül.]
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1458. Couered cowpes foul clene, as casteles arayed.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 23. Coupes of clene gold and coppes of seluer.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 99. Cowpe, or pece, crater (cuppa, P.)
c. 1450. Merlin, 67. The kynge hadde a riche cowpe of goolde.
γ. coppe (cope, coop): cf. COP sb.1
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., 41/258. A coppe of seluer.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 13402 (Gött.). Þai fild a cope [C. cupp, F. cuppe] sone in hast.
1340. Ayenb., 30. And brekþ potes and coppes.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frankl. T., 214. With outen coppe [4 MSS. cuppe] he drank al his penaunce.
a. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 626/9. Ciphus, coop.
1483. Cath. Angl., 75. A Coppe, ciphus [= scyphus], condus.
c. 1500. Yng. Children’s Bk., 106, in Babees Bk. (1868), 23. Wype thi mouthe when þou wyll drinke, Lest it foule thi copys brinke.
2. spec. a. The CHALICE in which the wine is administered at the Communion. (See also sense 8 b.)
[1382. Wyclif, Matt. xxvi. 27. And he takynge the cuppe dede thankyngis and ȝaue to hem.]
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. x. 203. The eukarist … is born in a coupe ordeyned therto.
1547–8. Ordre of Commvnion, 17. The first Cuppe or Chalice.
1662. Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion. Here he is to take the cup into his hand.
1890. J. Hunter, Devotional Services, Communion. Then shall the Minister say … when he delivereth the cup: Drink this in remembrance of Christ.
b. An ornamental cup or other vessel offered as a prize for a race or athletic contest.
c. 1640. [Shirley], Capt. Underwit, III. iii. in Bullen, O. Pl. (1883), II. 368. Does the race hold at Newmarket for the Cup?
1777. Sheridan, Sch. Scand., III. iii. All the family race cups and corporation bowls!
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxxix. Think you’re vinning a cup, Sir.
1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 4 April, 4/2. The competition for the Challenge Cup.
3. Surg. a. A vessel used for cupping; a cupping-glass. b. A vessel holding a definite quantity (usually four ounces), used to receive the blood in blood-letting.
1617. Mosan, trans. Wirtzung’s Pract. Physicke, 27. To remoue head-ach the cups are fixed on the the caues of the legs with opening of the skin.
1705. Arbuthnot, Coins (1727), 288 (J.). He [Hippocrates] tells you that in applying of Cups the Scarification ought to be made with crooked Instruments.
1792. H. Munro, Th. & Pract. Mod. Surg. (1800), 15. As soon as the wound is made by these [lancets], a cup, exhausted of its atmospheric air, applied over the orifices, makes them bleed freely.
1889. Chambers’ Encycl., III. 618. Of old the cups were either small horns … or glasses of various shapes.
4. A natural organ or formation having the form of a drinking-cup; e.g., the rounded cavity or socket of certain bones, as the shoulder-blade and hip-bone; the cup-shaped hardened involucrum (cupule) of an acorn (acorn-cup); the calyx of a flower, also the blossom itself when cup-shaped; a cup-shaped organ in certain Fungi, or on the suckers of certain Mollusks, etc.
1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, 81. Take … the cuppes of acornes.
1548–77. Vicary, Anat., vii. (1888), 48. The … shoulder blade … in the vpper part it is round, in whose roundnes is a concauitie, which is called ye boxe or coope of the shoulder.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 31. All their Elues for feare Creepe into Acorne cups and hide them there.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 819. The Cup of the Hippe.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 45. The Cup is that which infolds the Leaves and the Heart of a Flower, while it is yet in Bud.
1743–6. Shenstone, Elegies, viii. 38. The cowslip’s golden cup no more I see.
1866. Treas. Bot., 870. Peziza … The hymenium lines the cavity of a fleshy membranous or waxy cup.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 456. The suckers of the Decapoda are stalked, and the cup has a marginal horny ring.
5. A rounded cavity, small hollow, or depression in the surface of the ground or of a rock. spec. in Golf: see quot. 1887.
1868. ‘Holme Lee,’ B. Godfrey, I. i. 14. The ancient Church … stood in a cup of the hill-side.
1887. Jamieson, Supp., Cup, a term in golfing applied to a small cavity or hole in the course, prob. made by the stroke of a previous player.
1887. Sir W. G. Simson, Art of Golf, 133. Beware of a cup, however small.
1889. Chambers’ Encycl., III. 618. Cup-markings on rocks … of two varieties—circular cavities or ‘cups’ pure and simple, and cups surrounded by circles.
6. a. techn. Applied to various cup-shaped contrivances; see quots.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 113. Cup, A solid piece of cast iron let into the step of the capstan, and in which the iron spindle at the heel of the capstan works.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Cup, 4. One of a series of little domes attached to a boiler-plate and serving to extend the fire-surface.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 99. There are two varieties of cups—‘saucer’ and ‘balance-wheel’—the former, shaped like a saucer, is generally of gold, and is used in three-quarter plate watches.
b. Painting.
1768. W. Gilpin, Ess. Prints, 223. The heavier part of the foliage (the cup, as the landskip-painter calls it) is always near the middle: the out-side branches … are light and airy.
7. Astron. The constellation CRATER.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 269. The Cuppe standeth on the Hydres backe.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., July, 19. The Sonne … Making his way betweene the Cuppe, and golden Diademe.
1867. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens (ed. 2), 326.
II. Transferred and figurative uses.
8. A cup with the liquor it contains; the drink taken in a cup; a cupful. LOVING CUP (q.v.), a cup of wine, etc., passed from hand to hand round a company.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. x. 42. Who euer ȝiueth drynke to oon of these leste a cuppe of cold water oonly.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., 171 b. Quhasaeuer sal giv ony of thais small ains ane coup of watter to drink onelie.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., I. iii. 85. O knight, thou lack’st a cup of Canarie.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 28 Sept. I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 39. The cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each. [See CHEER v. 5 c.]
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, VI. xlviii. 145. A cup of poison had been prepared for him.
1849. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 44. Each of these gentlemen drank four cups of tea!
b. spec. The wine taken at the Communion. (Cf. 2 a.)
[1382. Wyclif, 1 Cor. xi. 26. How ofte euere ȝe schulen ete this breed, and schulen drynke the cuppe.]
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxvii. § 5. The bread and cup are his body and blood for that they are so to us.
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life (1747), III. 307. To communicate with them … in this one Baptism, and one eucharistical Bread and Cup.
c. 1880. J. S. Candlish, Sacraments, 91. The wine is described merely as ‘the cup,’ ‘the fruit of the vine.’
c. transf. Drink; that which one drinks.
1719. Young, Busiris, V. i. Weeds are their food, their cup the muddy Nile.
9. fig. Chiefly in the sense (derived from various passages of Scripture): Something to be partaken of, endured or enjoyed; an experience, portion, lot (painful or pleasurable, more commonly the former). Cf. CHALICE 1 b.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter x. 7. He calles þaire pynes a cope, for ilk dampned man sall drynk of þe sorow of hell. Ibid., xv. 5. He is cope of all my delite & ioy.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 134 b. To drynke the cuppe of sorowe.
1534. Tindale, Matt. xx. 22. Are ye able to drynke of the cuppe that I shall drynke of?
1605. Shaks., Lear, V. iii. 304. All Foes [shall taste] The cup of their deseruings.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, II. 288. In folly’s cup still laughs the bubble, joy.
1833. Mrs. Browning, Prom. Bound, Poems 1850, I. 156. I quaff the full cup of a present doom.
1875. Farrar, Silence & Voices, ii. 40. Filling to the brim the cup of his iniquity.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xviii. 293. To drink the bitterest cup of humiliation.
10. pl. The drinking of intoxicating liquor; potations, drunken revelry. In one’s cups: † (a) while drinking, during a drinking-bout (also † amidst, † among, † at, over one’s cups); (b) in a state of intoxication, ‘in liquor.’
1406. Hoccleve, La Male Regle, 165. For in the cuppe seelden fownden is, Þat any wight his neigheburgh commendith.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop. (Arb.), 26. Amonge their cuppes they geue iudgement of the wittes of writers.
1611. Bible, 1 Esdras iii. 22. And when they are in their cups, they forget their loue both to friends and brethren, and a little after draw out swords.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 718. Thence from Cups to civil Broiles.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, II. iv. She used to come home in her cups, and break the china.
1828. Bentham, Lett. to Sir F. Burdett, Wks. 1843, X. 592. I hear you are got among the Tories, and that you said once you were one of them: you must have been in your cups.
1842. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (ed. 2), V. ii. 22. They … discuss points of doctrine … even … over their cups.
1860. Thackeray, Four Georges, i. (1861), 33. The jolly prince,… loving his cups and his ease.
11. A name for various beverages consisting of wine sweetened and flavored with various ingredients and usually iced; as claret-cup, etc.
1773. Goldsm., Stoops to Conq., II. Here’s a cup, Sir … I have prepared it with my own hands, and I believe you’ll own the ingredients are tolerable.
1818. R. Rush, Crt. of London (1833), 151. Sir Henry recommended me to a glass of what I supposed wine, in a flagon near me; but he called it king’s cup.
1833. New Monthly Mag., XXXVII. 193, footn. A foaming tankard of cup. Note. Cup is a mixture of beer, wine, lemon, sugar, and spice.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Feb., 5/1. Who … could produce bottles of ‘old Johannisberg’ for a guest and make them into cup.
III. 12. Proverbs and Phrases. (See also sense 10.) Between (or betwixt) the cup and the lip: while a thing is yet in hand and on the very point of being achieved. (Now usually There’s many a slip between, etc.) † Such cup, such cover, also † such a cup, such a cruse: implying similarity between two persons related in some way. † Cup and can: constant or familiar associates (the can being the large vessel from which the cup is filled). A cup too low: see quots.
1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 16. Manye thynges fall betweene ye cuppe and the mouth.
1549. Latimer, 5th Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 143. Such a cup, suche a cruse. She would not depart from hir own.
1550. Bale, Apol., 132. As for your doctours,… they are lyke your selfe, as the adage goeth, suche cuppe suche couer.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 49. Mery we were as cup and can could holde.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew., A Cup too low, when any of the Company are mute or pensive.
1729. Swift, Libel on Dr. Delany. You and he are Cup and Cann.
1777. Sheridan, Trip Scarb., I. ii. If the devil don’t step between the cup and the lip.
1801. Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1802), V. 305. He must … be cup and can with sextons and grave-diggers.
1864. H. Ainsworth, John Law, Prol. x. (1881), 54. You’re a cup too low. A glass of claret will make you feel more cheerful.
1887. T. A. Trollope, What I remember, I. xii. 256. A whole series of slips between the cup and the lip!
13. attrib. and Comb. a. General combinations, as cup-augury, -maker, -marking; cup-headed, -like, -marked, -shaped adjs.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul (1883), 251. To presage his fate by a sort of *cup-augury involved in examining the grounds of coffee.
1889. G. Findlay, Eng. Railway, 46. The spikes [to fasten the chair to the sleeper] are *cup-headed.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 114/2. The bodies of the vertebræ terminate in two *cup-like cavities.
1864. Tennyson, Enoch Arden, 9. A hazelwood … in a cuplike hollow of the down.
14[?]. Nominale, in Wr.-Wülcker, 686/22. Hic cipharius, a *cop-maker.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Cubero, a cup maker.
1889. Chambers’ Encycl., III. 618. *Cup-marking on rocks and *cup-marked stones belong to a peculiar class of archaic sculpturings.
1845. Athenæum, 22 Feb., 199. *Cup-shaped bodies.
b. esp. in reference to social drinking or drunkenness (cf. sense 10): as cup-acquaintance, -caper, -conqueror, -friendship, -god, -mate, -tossing.
1596. Bp. W. Barlow, Three Serm., i. 13. Til that same Cupchallenging profession came into our land. Ibid., ii. 119. Wine … swilled by challenging Cupmates.
1599. Soliman & Perseda, V. in Hazl., Dodsley, V. 363. Where is tipsy Alexander, that great cup-conqueror?
1608. D. T[uvill], Ess. Pol. & Mor., 83. Cup-friendship, is of too brittle and glassie a substance to continue long.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XVIII. v. Only his cup acquaintance.
1842. S. C. Hall, Ireland, II. 270. She was perfect mistress of the art of cup-tossing.
c. In sense 2 b, as cup-taker, -transaction; cup-day, a day on which a race is run for a cup; cup horse, a horse that runs for a cup; cup-tie, a ‘tie’ (i.e., match or contest between the victors in previous contests) played for a cup.
1862. London Society, II. 98. We travelled [to Ascot] on the Cup day…. ‘The latest prices’ of the Cup horses.
1879. Black, White Wings, xvii. The master of one of the Cup takers [a yacht].
d. Special combs. Cup-and-cone, see quot.; cup-and-saucer limpet, collectors’ name of the molluscous genus Calyptræa; † cup-band, ‘a brace of metal on which masers and handled cups were hung’ (Riley, Liber Albus); cup-coral (see CORAL sb.1 1 b); cup-custard, fluid custard served in glass cups; cup-defect, the fault in timber of being CUP-SHAKEN; cup-flower, a name for Scyphanthus elegans, a S. American plant with yellow cup-shaped flowers; cup-gall, a cup-shaped gall or excrescence found on oak-leaves; † cup-glass = CUPPING-GLASS (in Bullokar, 1616); cup-guard, a cup-shaped sword-guard; cup-hilted a., having a cup-guard on the hilt: † cup-leech, one addicted to his cups; cup-lichen = CUP-MOSS a. (in Prior, 1879); cup-man, a man addicted to cups, a reveller; cup-mushroom, ‘a name for various species of Peziza’ (Britten and Holland); cup-plant, Silphium perfoliatum of N. America; cup-plate, see quot. 1891; † cup-rite, a libation; cup-rose, dial. var. of COP-ROSE; cup-seed, a N. American plant, Calycocarpum Lyoni (in Miller, 1884), having seeds hollowed out on one side like a cup; cup-sponge, a kind of sponge shaped like a cup; cup-sprung a., having the hip-joint dislocated; † cup-stool; cup-valve, see quot.; † cup-waiter, one who serves liquor at a meal or feast. See CUP-AND-BALL, CUP-BEARER, -MOSS, -SHOT.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Cup-and-cone. A machine for charging a shaft-furnace, consisting of an iron hopper with a large central opening, which is closed by a cone or bell, pulled up into it from below.
13[?]. in Liber Albus, 609. *Cuppebonde.
1483. Cath. Angl., 75. A Copbande, cru[s]ta.
1875. Laslett, Timber & Timber Trees, 32. The *cup-defect occurs in perfectly sound and healthy-looking trees.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., *Cup-galls … a kind of galls found on the leaves of the oak, and some other trees.
[1846. Lindley, Veg. Kingd., 32. The cup-shaped gall, which is so common on Oak leaves.]
1593. R. Harvey, Philad., 52. Cheryn was a drunkard, a *cupleache, a bellygod, a water rat.
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, II. iii. Oh, a friend of mine! a brother *cupman, a quiet dog … said Burbo.
1769. J. Wallis, Nat. Hist. Northumbld., I. viii. 305. Small, sessile, white, proliferous *Cup-Mushrome.
1674. Lond. Gaz., No. 863/4. Stoln … Ten Pottage Plates, Three *Cup Plates, Two Sawcers.
1891. Alice Morse Earle, in Scribn. Mag., Sept., 353/1. Seven saucers, and ten ‘cup-plates.’ By cup-plates I mean the little flat saucers in which our grandmothers placed their tea-cups when they poured their tea into the deeper saucers to cool.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, IV. (Arb.), 102. Iuppiter almighty, whom men Maurusian … with *cuprit’s magnifye dulye.
1741. Compl. Fam. Piece, III. 483. For a Lameness in a Cow or Bullock, or when they are Shoulder-pitched, or *Cup-sprung.
1567. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), 272. One flanders chist, one litle *cupstole, one chare.
1850. Weale, Dict. Terms, *Cup-valve, for a steam-engine.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Cup-valve. (Steam-engine.) a. A cup-shaped or conical valve, which is guided by a stem to and from its flaring seat. b. A form of balance-valve which opens simultaneously on top and sides. c. A valve formed by an inverted cup over the end of a pipe or opening.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xiii. (R.). The maior to attend in his own person as chiefe *cup-waiter … to serve the king in a cup of gold.
