# my cup runneth over

idiom · CEFR C1

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/my-cup-runneth-over
Updated: 2026-07-29

## Meaning

A feeling of having blessings or good fortune in overwhelming abundance.

## Examples

- With family around her and good news at last, my cup runneth over, she said.
- A new grandchild, a clean bill of health, and old friends visiting — this week my cup runneth over, he told them.
- After a year of quiet struggle, she found herself surrounded by everything she had once feared she had lost for good, and standing in the crowded, laughing kitchen she thought, almost helplessly, that my cup runneth over.

## Origin

The line is from the twenty-third Psalm, verse 5, in the King James Version: thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. The picture is of a host so generous that he fills the guest's cup past the brim and lets it spill — abundance beyond what is needed or asked for, offered as an act of lavish welcome. The archaic runneth keeps the phrase rooted in the psalm, and in English my cup runneth over expresses gratitude for happiness or good fortune so plentiful that it overflows, more than one could reasonably have hoped to receive.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.