Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A farewell drink, especially for a rider who is mounted to depart.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The bounty so much delighted mine host, that he ran to fill the stirrup-cup (for which no charge was ever made) from a butt yet charier than that which he had pierced for the former stoup.

    The Monastery 2008

  • Lord Keeper, the Master, and the domestics had drunk doch-an-dorroch, or the stirrup-cup, in the liquors adapted to their various ranks, the cavalcade resumed its progress.

    The Bride of Lammermoor 2008

  • All came on board with us, and we had a parting stirrup-cup, in which they drank my health as “the only man in the boat.”

    The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton 2006

  • “There is a friend,” answered Morton, “whom I am to meet with there, and I only called here to take a stirrup-cup and inquire the way.”

    Old Mortality 2004

  • DEOCH AN DORUIS, the stirrup-cup or parting drink.

    Waverley 2004

  • She hastened below, took the chalcedony stirrup-cup from a waiting steward and went out to bid Gerbert a formal farewell.

    The Falcons of Montabard Chadwick, Elizabeth 2004

  • Their entertainer always accompanied them to take the stirrup-cup, which often occasioned a long and late revel.

    Waverley 2004

  • When the landlord of an inn presented his guests with deoch an doruis, that is, the drink at the door, or the stirrup-cup, the draught was not charged in the reckoning.

    Waverley 2004

  • The sword-stick became almost the sword of chivalry, and the brandy the wine of the stirrup-cup.

    The Man Who Was Thursday Gilbert Keith 2003

  • After the manner of the amateur chauffeur, Ben was doubled up under the front wheels of his motor, offering a stirrup-cup of machine oil to the god of the car, but Stephen French stood at the gate, his grave face lighted up with the fun of a stolen holiday.

    Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 5, June 1905 Various

Comments

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  • (noun) - (1) Or stirrup-dram also stirrup-glass, a glass of ardent spirits, or draught of ale, given by the landlord of an inn to his guest when about to depart on horseback.

    --John Jamieson's Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, 1825

    (2) Tib Mumps will be out wi' the stirrup-dram in a gliffing.

    --Sir Walter Scott's Guy Mannering, 1815

    (3) In the north of the Highlands called "cup at the door."

    --Ebenezer Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898

    January 17, 2018