sup1
/sʌp
/- With your meal, you can sup Chinese tea to your heart's desire.
- It is a strange sight as there are some playing at dominoes just by the side of us and a little further on they are playing at cards and on the other side they are supping their gruel.
- Food is modern European and well-mixed cocktails are best supped on the small outdoor terrace during summer.
- Smoke free air, clean air, no, pristine alpine air would fill our lungs in between sups of sweet, sweet beer.
- After lots of sups of Lucozade and massaging of calves (players, not random cows that have just trotted onto the pitch) we're off again.
- She often took sups of at least two steaming mugs of coffee or hot cocoa.
Origin
Old English sūpan (verb), sūpa (noun), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zuipen, German saufen 'to drink'.
sop from Old English:
The Old English word sop first meant ‘to dip bread in liquid’—Chaucer says of his Franklin ‘Wel loved he in the morn a sop in wyn’—but nowadays a sop is something you do or offer as a concession to appease someone. This was originally used in the phrase a sop to Cerberus, referring to the monstrous three-headed watchdog which, in Greek mythology, guarded the entrance of Hades. In the Aeneid Virgil describes how the witch guiding Aeneas to the underworld threw a drugged cake to Cerberus, which allowed the hero to pass the monster in safety. When soppy, which comes from sop, first appeared in English in the early 19th century it meant ‘soaked with water’, not tears, as you might expect today from a feeble, sentimental soppy person. The writer H. G. Wells was one of the first to use the word in this sense. Soup (Middle English) comes from the French form of the same word. The American from soup to nuts for ‘from beginning to end’ dates from the early 20th century, while in the soup, also originally American and a variant of being in hot water is slightly earlier. Sip (Old English), sup (Old English), and supper (Middle English) go back to the same root.
Rhymes
sup2
/sʌp/- Seafood specialties include Pacific sand dabs with Swiss chard, poached lobster and grilled branzino, while non-seafood eaters can sup on foie gras and duck breast.
- The journey from Wellington to Tauranga is one I make regularly, and I've drummed out a solid rhythm of stopping, snacking and supping along the way.
- The three young travelers supped together on Dolphin in the Captain's Cabin.
Phrases
he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon
Origin
Middle English: from Old French super, of Germanic origin; related to sup1.
sup3
/səp
/- Sup my man, you liking Cam for tonight or Palmer?
- Sup Ronnie, thanks for that awesome trailer!
- Well, for all the cool dudes like myself who are not at SABR Conference, sup?
Origin
1950s (in Scottish use, in the sense 'what is the matter?'): informal abbreviation of what's up; compare wassup.