cup

/ˈkʌp/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈkɐp/

cup noun: a concave vessel for drinking, usually made of opaque material (as opposed to a glass) and with a handle.

Image: Christoph Kaiser, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

cup (plural cups)

A concave vessel for drinking, usually made of opaque material (as opposed to a glass) and with a handle.
- Pour the tea into the cup.
The contents of said vessel.
- I drank two cups of water but still felt thirsty.
- In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68
Synonyms:

cupful
(US) A US unit of liquid measure equal to 8 fluid ounces (¹⁄₁₆ of a US gallon; 236.5882365 mL) or 240 mL.
(Canada) A Canadian unit of measure equal to 8 imperial ounces (¹⁄₂₀ imperial gallon; 227.3 mL) or 250 mL.
(UK, dated) A British unit of measure equal to ¹⁄₂ imperial pint (10 imperial ounces; 284 mL) or 300 mL.
(Australia, New Zealand) A metric unit of measure equal to 250 mL.
A trophy in the shape of an oversized cup.
- The World Cup is awarded to the winner of a quadrennial football tournament.
- Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
A contest for which a cup is awarded.
- The World Cup is the world's most widely watched sporting event.
The main knockout tournament in a country, organised alongside the league.
- Until it was disbanded in 1999, the European Cup-Winners Cup was contested annually by the winners of Europe's national cups.2002, Rob Dimery, Peter Watts, Guinness world records, Gullane Children's Books, →ISBN
- Wallace had the unique distinction of being the only player ever to play in the English, Welsh and Scottish Cups in the same season.2011, Michael Grant, Rob Robertson, The Management: Scotland's Great Football Bosses, Birlinn, →ISBN
A cup-shaped object placed in the target hole.
- The ball just misses the cup.
A container in which dice are held and shaken before being thrown.
(in-compounds, usually) Any of various sweetened alcoholic drinks.
- cider cup
- gin cup

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(Canada, US) A rigid concave protective covering for the male genitalia.
- Players of contact sports are advised to wear a cup.
- Boys, I thought I told you to let the store tell you what cup size you needed.2000 March 27, Bill Amend, FoxTrot (comic)
Synonyms:

box
One of the two parts of a brassiere which each cover a breast.
- The cups are made of a particularly uncomfortable material.
1. Prefixed with a letter, used as a measurement of bra or breast size.
  - "For cleavage to show up in these photos, a girl has to have C-cup breasts — at least that's what they told me once."2010, Tom Clancy, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Books 1-6, page 1149
The symbol ∪ denoting union and similar operations.
A suit of the minor arcana in tarot, or one of the cards from the suit.
(ultimate frisbee) A defensive style characterized by a three player near defense cupping the thrower; or those three players.
A flexible concave membrane used to temporarily attach a handle or hook to a flat surface by means of suction.

Synonyms:

suction cup
Anything shaped like a cup.
- the cup of an acorn
- The cowslip's golden cup no more I see.1745, William Shenstone, Elegy VIII
(historical) A cupping glass or other vessel or instrument used to produce the vacuum in cupping.
(figuratively) That which is to be received or indured; that which is allotted to one; a portion of blessings and afflictions.
- O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 26:39

Verb

cup (third-person singular simple present cups, present participle cupping, simple past and past participle cupped)

(transitive) To form into the shape of a cup, particularly of the hands.
- Cup your hands and I'll pour some rice into them.
(transitive) To hold something in cupped hands.
- He cupped the ball carefully in his hands.
(transitive) To pour (a liquid, drink, etc.) into a cup.
- We are cupping some new brands of coffee today.
(obsolete, transitive) To supply with cups of wine.
- Cup us, till the world go round.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
(archaic, transitive) To apply a cup or cupping apparatus to; to subject to the operation of cupping.
(transitive) To make concave or in the form of a cup.
- to cup the end of a screw

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Cup

Cup

(informal) A particular trophy that is a cup; sometimes with the definite article "the".

Noun (2) capitalized: Cup

Cup (plural Cups)

(informal) A win of a championship that is awarded a cup.
(informal) A win of an event comprising part of the championship, which is awarded a cup

Proper noun (2) capitalized: CUP

CUP

(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Cambridge University Press.
(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Committee of Union and Progress.

cup meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

cup in Hindi

unit of measure: पैमाना paimānā
drinking vessel: प्याला pyālā, चषक caṣak, प्याली pyālī

cup in Tamil

drinking vessel: கோப்பை kōppai
trophy: கோப்பை kōppai
contest: கோப்பை kōppai
hold something in cupped hands: கூப்பு kūppu

cup in Urdu

unit of measure: پَیمانَہ paimāna
drinking vessel: کَپ kap, پْیالَہ pyāla, پْیالا pyālā, کاسَہ kāsa

cup in Bengali

drinking vessel: পেয়ালা peẏala

More languagesFewer languages

cup in Punjabi: ਪਿਆਲਾ piālā
cup in Sinhala: කෝප්පය kōppaya
cup in Nepali: कप kap
cup in Pashto: کوندازه kundāza, کنداره kandāra, پياله pyāla, جام jām
cup in Tagalog: tasa
cup in Arabic: كُوب kūb, فِنْجَان finjān, كَأْس kaʔs, فنجان fengān
cup in Malay: cangkir, cawan, piala, cekup
cup in Indonesian: cangkir
cup in Persian: پِیْمانِه peymâne, جام jâm, فِنْجان fenjân, پِنْگان pengân
cup in Thai: ถ้วย tûai
cup in Vietnamese: chén, ly, tách, cốc
cup in Myanmar: ခွက် hkwak
Kashmiri: پیالہٕ pyālụ, کَپ kap, خوس khōs

Examples of cup in a sentence

One week earlier, they had lost 5-2 to Borussia Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal [the German cup] final in Berlin.2014, Martí Perarnau, Pep Confidential: Inside Pep Guardiola's First Season at Bayern Munich, Birlinn, →ISBN:
Even if the parts are thicknessed by machine, check for and plane out any cup with a bench plane.2003, Garrett Hack, The Handplane Book, page 143:

All 40 example sentences with cup

Synonyms of cup

Forms of cup

Noun
plural	cups
plural	Cups
Verb
third-person singular present	cups
present participle	cupping
past participle	cupped
past	cupped

Plural of cup: cups

Origin of cup

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 (“top, head”)). The Middle English word was further reinforced by Anglo-Norman cupe and Old French cope, coupe, from Latin cuppa. Compare also Saterland Frisian Kop (“cup”), West Frisian kop (“cup”), Dutch kop (“cup”), German Low German Koppke, Köppke (“cup”), Danish kop (“cup”), Swedish kopp (“cup”). Doublet of coupe, hive, and keeve.

Capitalization of cup

Words formed from cup

Phrases with cup

101 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with cup

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cup

What does cup mean?: Cup means a concave vessel for drinking, usually made of opaque material (as opposed to a glass) and with a handle.
What is cup in Hindi?: Cup in Hindi is पैमाना (paimānā), प्याला (pyālā), चषक (caṣak). See Cup meaning in Hindi.
How do you use cup in a sentence?: One week earlier, they had lost 5-2 to Borussia Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal [the German cup] final in Berlin.
What part of speech is cup?: Cup can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce cup?: Cup is pronounced /ˈkʌp/ (UK).
What is the plural of cup?: The plural of cup is cups.

Words near cup in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: cup (page history and authors); Cup (page history and authors); CUP (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-a cup.ogg, en-us-cup.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cup.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cup. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.