• enPR: kŭp, IPA: /kʌp/

cup (plural cups)

1. A concave vessel for drinking from, usually made of opaque material (as opposed to a glass) and with a handle.

   Pour the tea into the cup.

2. The contents of said vessel; a cupful.

   I drank two cups of water but still felt thirsty.

3. A customary unit of measure
   1. (US) A US unit of liquid measure equal to 8 fluid ounces (frac 1 of a US gallon; 236.5882365 mL) or 240 mL.
   2. (Canada) A Canadian unit of measure equal to 8 imperial ounces (frac 1 imperial gallon; 227.3 mL) or 250 mL.
   3. (UK, dated) A British unit of measure equal to frac 1 imperial pints (10 imperial ounces; 284 mL) or 300 mL.
4. A trophy in the shape of an oversized cup.

   The World Cup is awarded to the winner of a quadrennial football tournament.

5. A contest for which a cup is awarded.

   The World Cup is the world's most widely watched sporting event.

6. (association football) The main knockout tournament in a country, organised alongside the league.
   • 2002, Rob Dimery, Peter Watts, Guinness world records, Gullane Children's Books ISBN 9780851121475

     Until it was disbanded in 1999, the European Cup-Winners Cup was contested annually by the winners of Europe's national cups.

   • 2011, Michael Grant, Rob Robertson, The Management: Scotland's Great Football Bosses, Birlinn ISBN 9780857900845

     Wallace had the unique distinction of being the only player ever to play in the English, Welsh and Scottish Cups in the same season.

   • 2014, Martí Perarnau, Pep Confidential: Inside Pep Guardiola's First Season at Bayern Munich, Birlinn ISBN 9780857908179

     One week earlier, they had lost 5-2 to Borussia Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal [the German cup] final in Berlin.

7. (golf) A cup-shaped object placed in the target hole.

   The ball just misses the cup.

8. (in combination) Any of various sweetened alcoholic drinks.

   cider cup; gin cup; claret cup

9. (US, Canada) A rigid concave protective covering for the male genitalia. (for UK usage see box)

   Players of contact sports are advised to wear a cup.

10. One of the two parts of a brassiere which each cover a breast, used as a measurement of size.

    The cups are made of a particularly uncomfortable material.

11. (mathematics) The symbol \cup denoting union and similar operations (confer cap).
12. A suit of the minor arcana in tarot, or one of the cards from the suit.
13. (ultimate frisbee) A defensive style characterized by a three player near defense cupping the thrower; or those three players.
14. A flexible concave membrane used to temporarily attach a handle or hook to a flat surface by means of suction (suction cup).
15. Anything shaped like a cup.

    the cup of an acorn

    • The cowslip's golden cup no more I see.

16. (medicine, historical) A cupping glass or other vessel or instrument used to produce the vacuum in cupping.
17. That which is to be received or indured; that which is allotted to one; a portion of blessings and afflictions.
    • Bible, Matthew 26:39

      O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

• French: tasse, coupe
• German: Tasse, Becher, Kelch
• Italian: tazza, coppa
• Portuguese: xícara, taça, chávena, caneca
• Russian: ча́шка
• Spanish: taza, copa

• French: tasse
• German: Tasse
• Portuguese: xícara, chávena
• Spanish: taza

• French: coupe
• German: Pokal
• Italian: coppa
• Portuguese: taça
• Russian: ку́бок
• Spanish: copa

• French: coupe
• German: Pokal, Cup, Preis
• Portuguese: copa
• Russian: ку́бок
• Spanish: copa

• French: bonnet
• German: Körbchen
• Italian: coppa
• Portuguese: bojo
• Russian: ча́шечка
• Spanish: copa

• French: cloche

cup (cups, present participle cupping; past and past participle cupped)

1. (transitive) To form into the shape of a cup, particularly of the hands.

   Cup your hands and I'll pour some rice into them.

2. (transitive) To hold something in cupped hands.

   He cupped the ball carefully in his hands.

3. (transitive) To pour (a liquid, drink, etc.) into a cup.

   We are cupping some new brands of coffee today.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To supply with cups of wine.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene vii]:

     Cup us, till the world go round.

5. (transitive, surgery, archaic) To apply a cupping apparatus to; to subject to the operation of cupping.
6. (transitive, engineering) To make concave or in the form of a cup.

   to cup the end of a screw

• German: (cup a hand and hold the opening upward) die Hand aufhalten; otherwise only the noun phrase hohle Hand

• German: in der hohle Hand (but only used with very small things or liquids)