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# cup

«cup» in Mova's school dictionary: **a small container with a handle that you drink from** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (cup, cups); verb (cup — to hold in curved hands)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A cup is a small container with a handle that you drink from. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#m1)

2) A cup is the amount a cup holds, also a unit in recipes: a cup of flour. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#m2)

3) A cup is a prize in a sport, often shaped like a big cup: the World Cup. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

a thing on the table (not a fruit); a container («each cup holds 3 sweets» = size of one group); in cooking «2 cups of milk» is a measure; in sport the cup final; in everyday life «a cup of tea», «not my cup of tea» (not what I like)

### examples

- I place one cup on the table. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#x1)
- Student: one cup and one pear [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#x2)
- Each cup holds 3 sweets. How many sweets are in 5 cups? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#x3)
- Would you like a cup of hot chocolate? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#x4)
- Add two cups of flour to the bowl. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#x5)
- Our team won the cup! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#x6)
- Be careful: the cup is hot. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#x7)
- She cupped the little bird in her hands. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#x8)
- Then he filled the cup again. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/#x9)

### note

Not a fruit, so it does not count in «how many fruits». Trap: «cups of flour» counts the flour, and the cups are its measure. Hot cups can burn; hold them by the handle.

### In the corpora

- [Swallows and house martins build cup nests from mud mixed with spit, and a house martin nest takes about 1,000 mud pellets.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/243-animal-builders-termite-mounds-weaver-birds-and-other-nest-makers/11/)
- [The tailorbird pokes holes in leaves and pulls plant fibres or spider silk through them to sew a leaf cup round its nest.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/243-animal-builders-termite-mounds-weaver-birds-and-other-nest-makers/13/)
- [A gasp, a scream or a dropped cup are clues that something surprising has happened.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/19-prediction-what-happens-next/20/)
- ["In his cups" is an old phrase meaning drunk.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/30-drinking-and-drugs/5/)
- [Chemicals should always stay in their own labelled bottles, never in drink bottles or cups.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/33-medicines-and-cleaning-products/18/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «cup» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cup/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.