cups as sports trophies

Preserved but no longer current.

Meaning · English

An engraved (usually silver) cup is a common form of trophy. One of the oldest is the Waterloo Cup for coursing, which originated in 1836 and owes its name to the fact that its leading promoter was landlord of the Waterloo Hotel, Liverpool.

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Common questions

What does “cups as sports trophies” mean?

An engraved (usually silver) cup is a common form of trophy. One of the oldest is the Waterloo Cup for coursing, which originated in 1836 and owes its name to the fact that its leading promoter was landlord of the Waterloo Hotel, Liverpool.

Is “cups as sports trophies” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.