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Glite Dictionary
☕ A small cup 🥄 A cupful
teacup

teacup

1 1.0
An amount equal to what a small cup holds used in cooking
  • noun
  • /ˈtiːkʌp/
translation icon : taza
  • Mix that into the sugar, about half a teacup.

Examples

  • In her grandmother's cookbook, a teacup of rice is often needed for pilaf.

  • Individual shuckers often got about half a teacup per day.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Heat your milk almost to boiling, about a teacup, let it cool down to warm; why not just heat it only to warm?

    Fiction book (1997)

  • My oldest cookbook from my grandmother has recipes that call for heaping teacups of flour.

    Blog text (8)

  • A typical recipe might require one teacup of sugar for a cake.

  • For the soup, add a teacup of diced carrots to the pot.

Synonyms

cup
vsteacup
  • US
609 1.0

A measure for liquids equal to about 240 millilitres

is a less fixed tea-sized amount used in home recipes
cup of sugar
vsteacup
  • US
9 1.0

An amount of sugar that fills one cup used for cooking

is a smaller tea-sized household measure not the larger baking volume
cupful
vsteacup
2 1.7

The amount that fills a cup used for measuring

is a smaller tea-sized measure rather than this general vessel amount
teacupful
vsteacup
5.3

An amount a teacup can hold, often for recipes

is the same amount but differs only in wording or form in recipes

Compounds

teacup and saucer
1.8

A small cup for tea with a matching flat dish to hold it

How Much

pint
  • UK
6 1.0
cup
  • US
609 1.0
teacup
1 1.0
tablespoon
99 1.0
teaspoon
83 1.0

Surface Forms

teacup singular
teacups plural

Morphology

teacup = tea + cup (transparent) = tea + cup

The measure sense is a straightforward extension of the physical object 'teacup' (the quantity it holds) and is easily inferred from the compound.

Etymology

Teacup can also mean 'an amount equal to one teacup' because people used a teacup as an easy way to measure ingredients, just like the common measuring word cup in recipes.