stirrup cup

English

Noun

stirrup cup (plural stirrup cups)

1. (historical) A parting drink taken after mounting one's horse.
   • 1819, Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor, Tales of My Landlord, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, Volume 2, Chapter 4, pp. 85-86,^[1]

     […] 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.

2. (by extension) A drink taken before leaving or parting company with someone.

   Synonym: one for the road

   • 1952, Patricia Highsmith, chapter 19, in The Price of Salt‎^[2], Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, published 2015, page 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.

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

     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

(historical) parting drink taken after mounting one's horse

• French: coup de l’étrier (fr) m
• Polish: strzemienny (pl) m