verb. (venery).—To copulate: see RIDE (B. E. and GROSE). [Spec. of a ram.] Hence as subs. (or A STRAY TUP ON THE LOOSE) = (1) a man questing for a woman; and (2) = a cuckold (GROSE).

1

  1602.  SHAKESPEARE, Othello, i. 1. 89.

        Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is TUPPING your white ewe.

2

  1610.  JONSON, Alchemist, v. 3.

          Kas.  Come on, you ewe, you have matched most sweetly, have you not?
Did not I say, I would never have you TUPPED
But by a dubbed boy, to make you a lady-tom?

3

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 2.

          LATONA’S son, that red-fac’d TUP.
    Ibid., 34.
And, then, before our chief could TUP her,
To please the God, send home the dame
As good a virgin as she came.

4

  2.  (provincial).—To salute in drinking.

5

  VENISON OUT OF TUP-PARK, subs. phr. (old).—Mutton (B. E.).

6