cups

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of cup.

   The café ran out of clean cups during the morning rush.

   He arranged the cups beside the coffee machine before opening.

   Note

   The same spelling also works as a verb form, the present-tense verb, so context tells them apart. In recipes the plural is a measurement, and its size depends on the country. A US cup is 8 fluid ounces, a Canadian one 227.3 mL, an Australian or New Zealand one 250 mL, and the dated British cup half an imperial pint. Three cups of stock depends on whose cookbook you hold.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of cup.

   The goalkeeper cups the ball against his chest to stop play.

   She cups her ear, straining to hear the distant melody.

   Note

   Every sense of the verb is transitive, so it always needs an object: she cups her hands, he cups the flame against the wind. The medical meaning, applying a cupping apparatus to the skin, is archaic. Supplying someone with cups of wine is obsolete. Today the verb is mostly about hands curved into a bowl, or about making something concave.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A suit of the minor arcana in a tarot deck, marked by the symbol of a cup or chalice.

   Most of the cards in her reading were Cups, so the reader steered the conversation toward love and friendship.

   She turned over the Queen of Cups near the center of the layout.

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