scupper

A drainage hole on the deck of a ship.

Noun

  1. A drainage hole on the deck of a ship.
  2. A similar opening in a wall or parapet that allows water to drain from a roof.
    • I have said that our roof was decidedly Biblical in style; but to make it a dry one, something of a nautical character was added to its architecture, for on either side were scuppers, and it was slightly arched in the...

Origin

Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English scope (“scoop”) or Dutch schop (“shovel”) + -er; or from Dutch scheppen (“to draw off”).

Forms

scuppers

Derived

scupper hole scupper hose scupper nail scupper plug

Verb

  1. To thwart or destroy, especially something belonging or pertaining to another.
    • The bad media coverage scuppered his chances of being elected.
    • ["]The only chance was to get the guns and try a rescue. Of course they may scupper them at once in revenge.["] - 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
    • This is the face of American exceptionalism[…] threatening to scupper both the court and, failing that, UN peace-keeping operations in Bosnia and anywhere else the US might have forces deployed on such work. - 2002 July...

    Coordinate Terms: scuttle

Origin

Of unknown origin; possibly verbized form of Etymology 1, but this is unlikely.

Forms

scuppers scuppering scuppered