to cup
- verb
- /kʌp/
- To catch the rain, you can cup your hands to collect as much as possible.
- cup your hands
So you've got cup, A cup can mean a cup, or it can mean cup your hands or cup your ears or World Cup.
- So you've got cup, A cup can mean a cup, or it can mean cup your hands or cup your ears or World Cup.
- But this curve is going to be longer so that this piece can be eased into the front piece and kind of give a little bit of cupping shaping to the breast.
Examples
-
"Eh?" the man called back, cupping one hand up to his ear.
Fiction book (1990) -
Cup your hand, cover your nose and mouth like this.
-
Turn off these lights, cup your hands around your eyes and look real close...
-
Just cup your hands like this, reach into the water, and...
-
Cup your hands closer to your chest!
-
If you cup your hands while you're swimming, you swim a whole lot faster, son.
-
On board Pinzon's ship, an officer cups his hands to his mouth.
Fiction book (1992) -
The soldier gags and cups his hands over his nose and mouth.
Fiction book (1994) -
Marshall leaned into the window, cupping his hands to see out.
Fiction book (1994) -
Shepherd kneels down, cups her daughter's face in his hands, and gently kisses her forehead.
Fiction book (1995)
Idioms
Phrasal Verbs
Compounds
An international soccer tournament held every four years where national teams play to win the world title
- US
A small round cup of paper, foil, or silicone that holds and shapes muffins while they bake
- Archaic
A small bowl made from bone ash used to separate precious metals during testing
- Specialized
A small brown mushroom that looks like a cup and grows on dead wood in damp places
- UK
A very poisonous white mushroom with a cup-shaped base and white gills that can kill if eaten
- Specialized
An electric machine with a cup-shaped metal part that turns around a fixed magnet inside
- Specialized
A small bright red mushroom shaped like a cup that grows on the forest floor
- Specialized
A small plant that comes back every year with two opposite leaves and a stem of white flowers
- Specialized
A cuplike part at the base of a flower that holds small parts like petals and stamens
- Specialized
A slender plant with shiny brown stalks and divided leaves with small brown dots along the edges
- Archaic
A cup with a small bar inside the rim that keeps a man's mustache out of the drink
- US
A plant from Mexico with bright yellow cup-shaped flowers and blue-grey divided leaves
- US
A plant from western North America with one or two white star-shaped flowers on short leafless stems
- Specialized
A two-layer cup in a developing embryo that becomes the retina's dark and light-sensing layers
How Curved
Surface Forms
Etymology
Cup as a verb comes from shaping your hands into a bowl like a drinking cup, so to 'cup' something is to make a curved, hollow shape with your hands.