Cup (kŭp), n. [AS. cuppe, LL. cuppa cup; cf. L. cupa tub, cask; cf. also Gr. κύπη hut, Skr. kūpa pit, hollow, OSlav. kupa cup. Cf. Coop, Cupola, Cowl a water vessel, and Cob, Coif, Cop.] 1. A small vessel, used commonly to drink from; as, a tin cup, a silver cup, a wine cup; especially, in modern times, the pottery or porcelain vessel, commonly with a handle, used with a saucer in drinking tea, coffee, and the like.
2. The contents of such a vessel; a cupful.
Give me a cup of sack, boy.
Shak.
3. pl. Repeated potations; social or excessive indulgence in intoxicating drinks; revelry.
Thence from cups to civil broils.
Milton.
4. That which is to be received or indured; that which is allotted to one; a portion.
O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
Matt. xxvi. 39.
5. Anything shaped like a cup; as, the cup of an acorn, or of a flower.
The cowslip's golden cup no more I see.
Shenstone.
6. (Med.) A cupping glass or other vessel or instrument used to produce the vacuum in cupping.
Cup and ball, a familiar toy of children, having a cup on the top of a piece of wood to which, a ball is attached by a cord; the ball, being thrown up, is to be caught in the cup; bilboquet. Milman. — Cup and can, familiar companions. — Dry cup, Wet cup(Med.), a cup used for dry or wet cupping. See under Cupping. — To be in one's cups, to be drunk.