Fuddle–cup describes someone given to excessive drinking, combining the idea of drunken confusion with the vessel that causes it. The term appears in moralistic poetry, satire, and popular verse warning against excess. Poets used it to personify intemperance and social decay, often contrasting bodily indulgence with spiritual or moral ideals. Its playful sound softened the rebuke while still making drunkenness a visible and criticised vice in poetic narratives.

Fuddle–cup exemplifies how poets personified vice through concrete labels, making abstract moral failings vivid and memorable. The term frequently appears in moralising poetry, ballads, and satire concerned with excess and self-indulgence. Its slightly comic sound softens the rebuke while still condemning habitual drunkenness. For students, it is useful to contrast fuddle–cup with neutral descriptions of drinking, noting how diction shapes moral tone. The term also reflects broader temperance discourses present in early literary culture.