Word.ws English Dictionary

scupper

UK/ˈskʌpə/US/ˈskʌpɚ/

scupper noun: a drainage hole on the deck of a ship.

Noun

scupper (plural scuppers)

  1. A drainage hole on the deck of a ship.
  2. A similar opening in a wall or parapet that allows water to drain from a roof.
    • I have said that our roof was decidedly Biblical in style; but to make it a dry one, something of a nautical character was added to its architecture, for on either side were scuppers, and it was slightly arched in the centre[.]1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 111

Verb

scupper (third-person singular simple present scuppers, present participle scuppering, simple past and past participle scuppered)

  1. (UK, transitive) To thwart or destroy, especially something belonging or pertaining to another.
    • The bad media coverage scuppered his chances of being elected.
    • ["]The only chance was to get the guns and try a rescue. Of course they may scupper them at once in revenge.["]1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC

scupper meaning in Malayalam and Kannada

scupper in Malayalam

submerge, sink, scuttle
മുക്കുക, താഴ്ത്തുക, ആഴ്ത്തുക, ഉൾപ്രവേശിപ്പിക്കുക, തകർക്കുക, വെള്ളത്തിൽ ആഴ്ത്തുക
ruin, destroy, wreck
ഇല്ലായ്മ ചെയ്യുക, തകർക്കുക, തുലയ്ക്കുക, നശിപ്പിക്കുക, ചേതം വരുത്തുക, പൊളിക്കുക

scupper in Kannada

ನೀರ್ಗಂಡಿ, ನೀರುಗಂಡಿ

Forms of scupper

Noun
pluralscuppers
Verb
third-person singular presentscuppers
present participlescuppering
past participlescuppered
pastscuppered

Origin of scupper

Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English scope (“scoop”) or Dutch schop (“shovel”) + -er; or from Dutch scheppen (“to draw off”).

Of unknown origin; possibly verbized form of Etymology 1, but this is unlikely.

Words formed from scupper

Phrases with scupper

Words that rhyme with scupper

Questions about scupper

What does scupper mean?
Scupper means a drainage hole on the deck of a ship.
What is scupper in Malayalam?
Scupper in Malayalam is മുക്കുക, താഴ്ത്തുക, ആഴ്ത്തുക. See Scupper meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is scupper?
Scupper can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce scupper?
Scupper is pronounced /ˈskʌpə/ (UK).
What is the plural of scupper?
The plural of scupper is scuppers.

Words near scupper in the dictionary

  1. scuntion
  2. scuntions
  3. scup
  4. scuppaug
  5. scuppaugs
  6. scupper
  7. scupper hole
  8. scupper holes
  9. scupper hose
  10. scupper hoses
  11. scupper nail

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scupper (page history and authors); scupper (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); scupper (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-scupper.ogg.

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