cup

/kəp/

/kəp/

Other forms: cups; cupped; cupping

A cup is a vessel used for drinking. Your grandmother might make it a habit never to go to bed without a cup of warm milk.

A cup is like a small bowl with a handle. It's also a unit of measurement in cooking — if a recipe calls for a cup of water, it's the same as eight ounces. If you cup your hands, you form them into a cup shape, which you do when you hold a baby bird or cup your hand to whisper to your friend. If you say, "Polka music's not my cup of tea," it means you don't love it.

Definitions of cup

1. noun

   a small open container usually used for drinking; usually has a handle
   “he put the cup back in the saucer”

   “the handle of the cup was missing”

   types:

   beaker

   a cup (usually without a handle)

   chalice, goblet

   a bowl-shaped drinking vessel; especially the Eucharistic cup

   coffee cup

   a cup from which coffee is drunk

   Dixie cup, paper cup

   a disposable cup made of paper; for holding drinks

   grace cup

   cup to be passed around for the final toast after a meal

   cylix, kylix

   a shallow drinking cup with two handles; used in ancient Greece

   moustache cup, mustache cup

   a drinking cup with a bar inside the rim to keep a man's mustache out of the drink

   scyphus

   an ancient Greek drinking cup; two handles and footed base

   teacup

   a cup from which tea is drunk

   demitasse

   small coffee cup; for serving black coffee

   type of:

   container

   any object that can be used to hold things (especially a large metal boxlike object of standardized dimensions that can be loaded from one form of transport to another)

   crockery, dishware

   tableware (eating and serving dishes) collectively
2. noun

   a United States liquid unit equal to 8 fluid ounces
   type of:

   United States liquid unit

   a liquid unit officially adopted in the United States Customary System
3. noun

   the quantity a cup will hold
   “he drank a cup of coffee”

   “he borrowed a cup of sugar”

   synonyms: cupful

   type of:

   containerful

   the quantity that a container will hold
4. noun

   any cup-shaped concavity
   “bees filled the waxen cups with honey”

   type of:

   concave shape, concavity, incurvation, incurvature

   a shape that curves or bends inward
5. noun

   cup-shaped plant organ
   types:

   acorn cup, cupule

   cup-shaped structure of hardened bracts at the base of an acorn

   type of:

   plant organ

   a functional and structural unit of a plant or fungus
6. verb

   form into the shape of a cup
   “She cupped her hands”

   type of:

   form, shape

   give shape or form to
7. verb

   put into a cup
   “cup the milk”

   type of:

   enclose, inclose, insert, introduce, put in, stick in

   introduce
8. verb

   treat by applying evacuated cups to the patient's skin
   synonyms: transfuse

   type of:

   care for, treat

   provide treatment for
9. noun

   a punch served in a pitcher instead of a punch bowl
   types:

   champagne cup

   a punch containing a sparkling wine

   claret cup

   a punch made of claret and brandy with lemon juice and sugar and sometimes sherry or curacao and fresh fruit

   type of:

   punch

   an iced mixed drink usually containing alcohol and prepared for multiple servings; normally served in a punch bowl
10. noun

    the hole (or metal container in the hole) on a golf green
    “he swore as the ball rimmed the cup and rolled away”

    “put the flag back in the cup”

    type of:

    hole

    an opening deliberately made in or through something
11. noun

    a large metal vessel with two handles that is awarded as a trophy to the winner of a competition
    “the school kept the cups is a special glass case”

    synonyms: loving cup

    types:

    Davis Cup

    cup awarded for the annual international team tennis competition

    type of:

    prize, trophy

    something given as a token of victory