stirrup cup

stirrup cup

English

Noun

stirrup cup (plural stirrup cups)

1. A parting drink taken after mounting one's horse; (by extension) a drink taken before leaving or parting company with someone.
   • 1819, Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor, Tales of My Landlord, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, Volume 2, Chapter 4, pp. 85-86,

     […] after the 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.

   • 1952, Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2015, Chapter 19, p. 190,

     Mrs. French insisted that they come into her room for a cordial, when she heard they were leaving. “You must have a stirrup cup,” Mrs. French said to Carol.

2. A cup from which such a drink is taken.
   • 1988, Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda, New York: Vintage, 2011, Chapter 65,

     Bishop Dancer is a man you would most quickly understand if you saw him on a Saturday in Camden, dressed in his red hunting jacket and high black boots, leaning forward to accept some hot toddy from the stirrup cup.

Translations

a final drink before leaving

French: coup de l’étrier (fr) m

See also

• one for the road