Meaning of elf-cup | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Any of various species of fungus with a cup-shaped sporocarp, such as scarlet cup, Sarcoscypha coccinea.
2. A stone with a hole pierced by dripping water.
   UK, dialectal
3. A cup-shaped depression in the stonework of a Neolithic monument.

Examples

“Elf-cups; All terrestrial species; all seasons; (poor eating of themselves).”

“Many toadstools are dainty enough to deserve their popular names: "Pixies' parasols," "Fairies' bath," "Elf cups," and so on.”

“HOLY-STAAN, A stone with a natural hole in it, which was frequently suspended by a string from the tester of a bed, or from the roof of a cow house, as an infallible prevention of injury from witches!! In Scotland these stones are called elf-cups.”

“Elf cups are often found in Sweden on the covering blocks of our dolmens. The dolmens belong in Sweden exclusively to the Stone-age, but I am not quite sure if the cup-marks on them can be ascribed to so high an antiquity. The cup-bearing blocks could be visible in other prehistoric periods as they are to-day, and in that way they do not necessarily belong to the times of erection of the dolmen itself.”

“Rude pillars of Neolithic age with the little cup-shaped hollows mentioned above, occur all over the Continent, from the Pyrenees to Scandinavia, and are known as "fairy-cups," "elf-cups," marmites du diable, and "stones of the dead".”

CEFR level