stoup

Alternative forms

• stoop, stowp

Noun

stoup (plural stoups)

2. (obsolete) A bucket. [14th–20th c.]
4. (archaic) A mug or other drinking vessel. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     Fetch me a stoup of liquor.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     Set me the Stopes of wine vpon that Table.

   • 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Oxford, published 2010, page 57:

     …we ran up stairs together without speaking, and were instantly in the apartment I had left, where a stoup of wine still stood untasted.

6. A receptacle for holy water, especially a basin set at the entrance of a church. [from 16th c.]

   Synonym: font

   • 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber, published 2007, page 26:

     He was seen [...] bathing in the holy water stoup as if he were its single and beholden bird, pushing aside weary French maids and local tradespeople with the impatience of a soul in physical distress.

   • 1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers:

     But, though I liked Morgan well enough, I did not greatly care for his smell, which, incredibly, considering his agnosticism, was not unlike that of stale water in a church stoup.

   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 810:

     She saw nobody for the moment so that she entered the church formally dipping her fingers in the holy water stoup and signing herself.

Further reading

• holy water font on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

stoup (third-person singular simple present stoups, present participle stouping, simple past and past participle stouped)

1. Obsolete form of stoop.