cup

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small container with a handle that you drink from.

   Pour the tea into the cup.

2. 2
   noun

   The amount that a cup holds.

   They drank a cup of coffee together.

3. 3
   noun

   A large metal prize, often with two handles, given to the winner of a competition.

   The team lifted the cup after winning the final.

4. 4
   verb

   To make your hands into a curved shape, like a cup.

   She cupped her hands to catch the water.

Common collocations

• empty cup Adjective + noun
• full cup Adjective + noun
• paper cup Adjective + noun
• plastic cup Adjective + noun
• fill a cup Verb + noun
• pour a cup Verb + noun
• win a cup Verb + noun

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…

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