SCUPPER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does scupper mean? 

• SCUPPER (noun)
  The noun SCUPPER has 1 sense:

1. drain that allows water on the deck of a vessel to flow overboard

  Familiarity information: SCUPPER used as a noun is very rare.

• SCUPPER (verb)
  The verb SCUPPER has 2 senses:

1. wait in hiding to attack

2. put in a dangerous, disadvantageous, or difficult position

  Familiarity information: SCUPPER used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCUPPER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Drain that allows water on the deck of a vessel to flow overboard

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("scupper" is a kind of...):

drain; drainpipe; waste pipe (a pipe through which liquid is carried away)

• SCUPPER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they scupper    ... he / she / it scuppers   
Past simple: scuppered   
Past participle: scuppered   
-ing form: scuppering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wait in hiding to attack

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

ambuscade; ambush; bushwhack; lie in wait; lurk; scupper; waylay

Hypernyms (to "scupper" is one way to...):

wait (stay in one place and anticipate or expect something)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Put in a dangerous, disadvantageous, or difficult position

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

endanger; expose; peril; queer; scupper

Hypernyms (to "scupper" is one way to...):

affect; bear on; bear upon; impact; touch; touch on (have an effect upon)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "scupper"):

compromise (expose or make liable to danger, suspicion, or disrepute)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

The HISPANIOLA was rolling scuppers under in the ocean swell.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I had been swept against the galley and around the steerage companion-way from the weather side into the lee scuppers.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Of course they may scupper them at once in revenge.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The fishing-boats are racing for home, and rise and dip in the ground swell as they sweep into the harbour, bending to the scuppers.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Having taken the pirate captain prisoner, sailed slap over the schooner, whose decks were piled high with dead and whose lee scuppers ran blood, for the order had been 'Cutlasses, and die hard!' 'Bosun's mate, take a bight of the flying-jib sheet, and start this villain if he doesn't confess his sins double quick,' said the British captain.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

In half a minute he had reached the port scuppers and picked, out of a coil of rope, a long knife, or rather a short dirk, discoloured to the hilt with blood.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The deck was continually awash with the sea which came inboard over the rail and through the scuppers.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

We were both of us capsized in a second, and both of us rolled, almost together, into the scuppers, the dead red-cap, with his arms still spread out, tumbling stiffly after us.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

After a good day’s killing I have seen our decks covered with hides and bodies, slippery with fat and blood, the scuppers running red; masts, ropes, and rails spattered with the sanguinary colour; and the men, like butchers plying their trade, naked and red of arm and hand, hard at work with ripping and flensing-knives, removing the skins from the pretty sea-creatures they had killed.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The planks, which had not been swabbed since the mutiny, bore the print of many feet, and an empty bottle, broken by the neck, tumbled to and fro like a live thing in the scuppers.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)