sup

present singular third person sups · participle present supping · participle past supped · past supped · alternative soup

1. To sip; to take a small amount of food or drink into the mouth, especially with a spoon.

   There I'll sup / Balm and nectar in my cup.

   1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple

   3 more examples

   We stood upon the forehead of the hills, / And lifted up our hearts in prayer; / And as we halted, reverent, / Meseemed that Nature o’er us bent, / That she did bid us sup / From bread she gave and from her cup.

   1893, Norman Gale, “A Walk”, in Orchard Songs, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews & John Lane; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 43

   And as she supped her tea she smiled discreetly at him over the brim.

   1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 80

   On market days the farmers would come in before going home - Tysons and Lindsays and Birketts and Longmires and Boows and Dawsons - and their dogs would lie in heaps on the flags while they themselves supped Gerald's ale.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 60

plural sups · alternative soup

1. countableuncountableA sip; a small amount, of food or drink, water or rain.

   A long, long sup of beer flowed gratefully down his gullet.

   1936, George Orwell, chapter 8, in Keep the Aspidistra Flying

   5 more examples

   Not a sup will I swallow, nor a bit will I bite, till Burd Ellen is set free.

   1890, Joseph Jacobs, “Childe Rowland”, in English Fairy Tales, page 123

   Is it stoppin' there you'd be till every sup of the say's dhrained out on us to beyant the King Pharaoh's Islands?

   1896, Jane Barlow, Mrs. Martin's Company, page 95

   “Then, who,” the sick man meekly said, / “Shall heal the sick and hide the dead?— / “Snatch the despairer’s poisoned cup; / Clothe shame, and give the outcast sup?⁠— / “Lighten, if only by a hair, / The load of human pain and care?”

   1898, Wilfred Woollam, “Fragments from Two Hearts”, in Child Illa and Other Poems, Sheffield: J. Arthur Bain; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd., page 163

   We’re sisters in a sort and I’ll take Louie home with me and give her sup and shelter.

   a. 1936, J[oseph] S[mith] Fletcher, “Assault of Hannah’s Castle”, in The Mill House Murder: Being the Last of the Adventures of Ronald Camberwell, Alfred A[braham] Knopf, Inc., published 1937, page 234

   ... an' we'll bathe them eyes of yours with a sup of rain water, the way when you go indoors ne'er a one will see there's been a ha'porth the matter.

   1906, Emily Lawless, The Book of Gilly: Four Months Out of a Life, page 60

present singular third person sups · participle present supping · participle past supped · past supped · alternative rare soup

1. To eat supper.

   ...I propose we should have up the cold pie, and let him sup.

   1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

   1 more example

   I pray you, be seated and sup how you please. You will, I trust, excuse me that I do not join you; but I have dined already, and I do not sup.

   1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC

alternative ssup · alternative 'sup · alternative s'up · alternative zup

1. slangwhat's up (either as a greeting or actual question)

   — Sup? — Not much.

   Synonyms: t'sup, wassup, w'sup, wudup

1. not comparablenatural sciencesBeing or relating to the squark that is the superpartner of an up quark.

   Antonyms: sdown

plural sups · alternative supe

1. informalSuperintendent.

   Cpl. Perez, the radio sup said, "Everything checks out OK, Sarge. We're up and working."

   2011, M. Thomas, Not Today, →ISBN, page 212

   2 more examples

   They had put in the stretch-out and they were laying people off and there was talk of a union. "Let's have a union." "Mr. Shaw won't stand for it. The sup won't stand for it."

   1932, Edward Livermore Burlingame, Robert Bridges, Alfred Dashiell, Scribner's Magazine - Volume 91, page 64

   But here comes the deputy vehicle, cruising right up to the shelter on the bike path. The sup is a retired county sheriff's deputy.

   2012, Caroline Court, Rescuing Park Ranger Billie, →ISBN, page 55

plural sups

1. mathematicsSupremum, upper limit.

   Values for the sup W statistic in excess of the 5 percent critical value (2.75 for booms and 2.77 for slumps) indicate rejection of the null hypothesis of no change in the dureation of booms and slumps in real commodity prices.

   2001, Mr. Paul Cashin, Mr. C. John McDermott, The Long-Run Behavior of Commodity Prices, →ISBN

   1 more example

   For a wide class of connected open sets U, not necessarily simply connected, one proves the existence of a harmonic function on U having given boundary value (satisfying suitable integrability conditions) by taking the sup of the subharmonic functions having this boundary value.

   2003 -, Serge Lang -, Complex Analysis, →ISBN, page 271

plural sups

1. colloquialbodybuildingSupplement.

plural sups · alternative supe · alternative supp

1. Cambridge University slangA supervision.

1. abbreviationacronymAcronym of Sailors' Union of the Pacific.
2. abbreviationacronymAcronym of Socialist Unity Party.
3. abbreviationacronymAcronym of Scottish Unionist Party.
4. abbreviationacronymAcronym of Stanford University Press.
5. abbreviationacronymAcronym of Software Upgrade Protocol.

plural SUPs

1. abbreviationacronymcountableuncountableAcronym of standup paddleboarding.
2. abbreviationacronymcountableuncountableAcronym of standup paddleboard.
3. abbreviationacronymcountableuncountableAcronym of selective ultraviolet phototherapy.
4. abbreviationacronymcountableuncountableAcronym of single-use plastic(s).
5. abbreviationacronymcountableuncountableAcronym of shared use path.