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sweet cup

sweet cup

9.9
A yellow tropical fruit with juicy sweet flesh
  • noun
  • US
translation icon : fruta dulce
  • The sweet cup is prized in the Caribbean for its juicy, aromatic pulp.

Examples

  • Vendors at the market were selling freshly picked sweet cups alongside other tropical fruits.

  • She enjoyed tasting the sweet cup for the first time during her trip to Jamaica.

  • I bought a sweet cup from the market.

  • Have you ever tasted a sweet cup?

  • The sweet cup is a delicious fruit that many people love for its unique flavor.

  • In Jamaica, you can find sweet cups sold at roadside stands during the summer.

  • She added a sweet cup to her fruit salad for an extra burst of flavor.

Synonyms

water lemon
vssweet cup
8.9

A yellow tropical fruit with juicy sweet pulp like passion fruit

emphasizes tropical American origin rather than taste
bell apple
vssweet cup
  • UK
9.9

A yellow tropical fruit with sweet juicy flesh and a strong smell

specifies tropical America rather than broad tropical regions
Passiflora laurifolia
vssweet cup
  • Specialized
9.9

A tropical vine that makes sweet yellow fruit eaten in tropical places

refers to the fruit itself not the whole plant
Jamaica honeysuckle
vssweet cup
  • US
9.9

A climbing plant from the Caribbean that has bright yellow fruit you can eat

means the fruit itself rather than the whole flowering vine

Surface Forms

sweet cup singular
sweet cups plural

Morphology

sweet + cup

This is a lexicalized plant/fruit name whose meaning (a specific edible yellow fruit) cannot be predicted from ‘sweet’ (taste) plus ‘cup’ (container). A B1 learner who knows the constituent words would likely interpret it as a sweet container or be uncertain, and the head 'cup' here is not providing a cue to 'fruit', so the compound is idiomatic and non-compositional.

Etymology

Sweet cup may come from the fruit's small, cup-like shape that holds very sweet juice. The image of a little cup full of sweetness explains why people call this 'fruit' a sweet cup today.