🥤 A drink slot 🏆 A title winner

cup holder

1 3.5

A person or team that has the cup after winning a competition

noun
/kʌp ˈhoʊldər/

: título defensor

After winning the final match, they celebrated as the new cup holder of the league trophy.

Examples

For Premier League winner City, it was a first success since 1972 in the annual curtain raiser between the English champions and the FA Cup holders.

Blog text (12)
The current cup holder of the championship is the defending team from last year's finals.
As the reigning cup holder, they are expected to defend their title in the upcoming tournament.

Synonyms

champion

vscup holder

600 2.4

A person who wins first place in a competition

focuses on holding the current championship rather than general excellence

champ

vscup holder

Informal

278 2.7

A person who wins first place in a competition

uses neutral, standard language for any current holder of a title

title-holder

vscup holder

2 4.0

A person who currently has first place in a competition

is the broader term covering people, teams, and groups holding trophies

titleholder

vscup holder

1 4.3

A person or team that currently holds a championship in a competition

includes organizations as possible holders not only persons or teams

titlist

vscup holder

1 7.3

A person who is the current champion in a sport

is the general term for any current trophy or title holder

titler

vscup holder

8.0

An athlete who has won a championship

is about the present holder of a trophy not just a past winner

Antonyms

loser

166 1.0

A person or team that does not win a competition

Surface Forms

cup holder singular

cup holders plural

Morphology

cup + holder

The phrase can be compositionally analysed as 'one who holds the cup' (holder + cup), so a learner who interprets 'cup' as the tournament trophy could infer the champion meaning. However, there is strong ambiguity because 'cup holder' more commonly denotes a device for holding drinking cups, and understanding the champion sense requires recognising 'cup' as a trophy and a sports-specific usage. Because the meaning is partially derivable but context-dependent, it is not fully transparent to an average B1 learner.

Etymology

Cup holder comes from the image of a team or person holding a shiny cup, meaning the trophy after a win. So the cup holder is the team who currently has the cup, the 'champion'.