Leaves in the bottom of the cup, perhaps (3)
I believe the answer is:
tea
'leaves' is the definition.
(as in tea leaves)
'the bottom of the cup perhaps' is the wordplay.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'bottom of' suggests the final letters.
'cup perhaps' becomes 'a' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The final letter of 'the' is 'e'.
't'+'e'+'a'='TEA'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tea that I've seen before include "Eg, gunpowder, pekoe" , "Leaves for brewing" , "Strangely, one may eat this drink" , "Cuppa" , "Meal/drink" .)