Elf-cup
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Any of various species of fungus with a cup-shaped sporocarp, such as scarlet cup, Sarcoscypha coccinea.
"Elf-cups; All terrestrial species; all seasons; (poor eating of themselves)."
- 2 A stone with a hole pierced by dripping water. UK, dialectal
"HOLY-STAAN, A stone with a natural hole in it, which was frequently suspended by a string from the tester of a bed, or from the roof of a cow house, as an infallible prevention of injury from witches!! In Scotland these stones are called elf-cups."
- 3 A cup-shaped depression in the stonework of a Neolithic monument.
"Elf cups are often found in Sweden on the covering blocks of our dolmens. The dolmens belong in Sweden exclusively to the Stone-age, but I am not quite sure if the cup-marks on them can be ascribed to so high an antiquity. The cup-bearing blocks could be visible in other prehistoric periods as they are to-day, and in that way they do not necessarily belong to the times of erection of the dolmen itself."
Example
More examples"Elf-cups; All terrestrial species; all seasons; (poor eating of themselves)."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.