tup

[ tuhp ]

/ tʌp /

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noun

Chiefly British. a male sheep; ram.

the head of a falling hammerlike mechanism, as of a steam hammer or pile driver.

verb (used with object), tupped, tup·ping.

Chiefly British. (of a ram) to copulate with (a ewe).

verb (used without object), tupped, tup·ping.

Chiefly British. (of a ewe) to copulate.

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Origin of tup

1300–50; Middle English tope, tupe ram, of obscure origin

Words nearby tup

tunnel vault, tunnel vision, Tunney, tunny, Tuonela, tup, Tupamaro, tupelo, Tupi, Tupi-Guarani, tupik

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use tup in a sentence

Mattie has been twice at the door wi' the dinner, and weel for you it was a tup's head, for that canna suffer by delay.
Rob Roy, Complete, Illustrated|Sir Walter Scott
Aw glendurt like a stickt tup, for fear ov a dust mysel', an crope fur into th' chimbley.
Lancashire Sketches|Edwin Waugh
The shearling tup is then a 2-shear tup, and the dinmont is a wether, but more correctly a 2-shear wether.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 401, March 1849|Various
Anent sheep jumping hedges, I may venture here to tell a tale of a certain old rogue who went by the name of Tup-Harry.
An Old English Home|S. Baring-Gould

As if I mattered a tup's head, the silly gomeril, bless him!
The Yeoman Adventurer|George W. Gough

British Dictionary definitions for tup

tup

/ (tʌp) /

noun

mainly British an uncastrated male sheep; ram

the head of a pile-driver or steam hammer

verb tups, tupping or tupped (tr)

to cause (a ram) to mate with a ewe, or (of a ram) to mate with (a ewe)

Lancashire dialect to butt (someone), as in a fight

Word Origin for tup

C14: of unknown origin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012