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Glite Dictionary
death cup

death cup

9.9
A very poisonous white mushroom with a cup-shaped base and white gills that can kill if eaten
  • noun
  • /dɛθ kʌp/
  • UK
translation icon : hongo mortal
  • Botanists warn that confusing a death cup with an edible mushroom can be fatal.

Examples

  • The death cup is one of the most toxic mushrooms.

  • The hiker unknowingly picked a death cup and suffered severe poisoning as a result.

  • The death cup is notorious for being mistaken for benign woodland fungi.

  • Do not touch the death cup if you see one!

  • Botanists warn that confusing a death cup with an edible mushroom can be fatal.

  • The death cup is notorious for being mistaken for benign woodland fungi.

  • The hiker unknowingly picked a death cup and suffered severe poisoning as a result.

Synonyms

destroying angel
vsdeath cup
  • Specialized
9.9

A very poisonous white mushroom that can kill you if eaten

is the other common name used for the same organism
death angel
vsdeath cup
9.9

A very poisonous white mushroom that can kill you if you eat it

focuses on extreme poisoniness rather than the frequency of deaths
Amanita verna
vsdeath cup
  • Specialized
9.9

A very poisonous white mushroom that can kill people if eaten

is the broad common name covering several related poisonous white mushrooms

Surface Forms

death cup singular
death cups plural

Morphology

death + cup

The parts 'death' (deadly) and 'cup' (cup-shaped) give clear cues that the referent is something deadly with a cup-like shape, so learners can partially infer semantic properties. However, the specific identification as a poisonous mushroom species (Amanita, aka the destroying angel) and the lexicalized name for that fungus are not fully predictable from the constituents, making the expression only partially transparent.

Etymology

Death cup probably comes from how the mushroom looks and what it does; the mushroom has a white, cup-shaped base, the cup, and it is deadly, which explains the death part. So the name warns that the mushroom is 'poisonous' and can cause 'death'.