dip
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: dĭp
ipa: /dɪp/
rhymes: -ɪp
Forms: form: dips
form: dipping
form: dipped
form: dipped
Etymology: From Middle English dippen, from Old English dyppan, from Proto-West Germanic *duppjan, from Proto-Germanic *dupjaną; see *daupijaną (“to dip”). Related to deep.
Senses: examples: text: Dip your biscuit into your tea.
text: He dipped the end of a towel in cold water and with it began to flick him on the face, his wife all the while holding her face between her hands and sobbing in a way that was heart breaking to hear.
ref: 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:
glosses: To lower into a liquid.
examples: text: The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out.
ref: 1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC:
glosses: To immerse oneself; to become plunged in a liquid; to sink.
glosses: (of a value or rate) To decrease slightly.
examples: text: Dip your lights as you meet an oncoming car.
text: The engine's three headlights lit the way clearly, and when a train approached in the other direction, Driver Wegg dipped his lights; the other driver politely replying by doing the same.
ref: 1953 August, J. G. Click, “The Lötschberg Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 516:
glosses: To lower a light's beam.
examples: text: The sailor rushed to the flag hoist to dip the flag in return.
glosses: To lower (a flag), particularly a national ensign, to a partially hoisted position in order to render or to return a salute. While lowered, the flag is said to be “at the dip.” A flag being carried on a staff may be dipped by leaning it forward at an approximate angle of 45 degrees.
examples: text: The farmer is going to dip the cattle today.
glosses: To treat cattle or sheep by immersion in chemical solution.
glosses: To use a dip stick to check oil level in an engine.
glosses: To consume snuff by placing a pinch behind the lip or under the tongue so that the active chemical constituents of the snuff may be absorbed into the system for their narcotic effect.
examples: text: new dipt Sectaries
ref: (Can we date this quote?), Thomas Fuller, The Appeal of Iniured Innocence:
text: […] during the reigns of King James and King Charles I, there were but very few children dipped in the font.
ref: c. 1722, Charles Wheatly, A rational illustration of the Book of Common Prayer:
glosses: To immerse for baptism.
examples: text: A cold shuddering dew / Dips me all o'er.
ref: 1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “Comus”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To wet, as if by immersing; to moisten.
examples: text: He was […] dipt in the rebellion of the Commons.
ref: 1700, [John] Dryden, “Preface”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To plunge or engage thoroughly in any affair.
examples: text: to dip water from a boiler; to dip out water
glosses: To take out, by dipping a dipper, ladle, or other receptacle, into a fluid and removing a part; often with out.
examples: text: Whoever dips too deep will find death in the pot.
ref: 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To perform the action of plunging a dipper, ladle. etc. into a liquid or soft substance and removing a part.
examples: text: Live on the use and never dip thy lands.
ref: 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
glosses: To engage as a pledge; to mortgage.
glosses: To perform (a bow or curtsey) by inclining the body.
examples: text: Strata of rock dip.
text: The tunnel dips approximately 15 metres below Regents Canal and has a rising gradient at its northern end of 1-in-107.
ref: 2021 June 16, Dr David Turner, “The latest face of Gasworks Tunnel”, in RAIL, number 933, page 34, photo caption:
glosses: To incline downward from the plane of the horizon.
topics: dance
dancing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To perform a dip dance move (often phrased with the leader as the subject noun and the follower as the subject noun being dipped)
glosses: To briefly lower the body by bending the knees while keeping the body in an upright position, usually in rhythm, as when singing or dancing.
examples: text: When the time came, he dipped.
text: Twelve people worked on the project, but by the end, most of them had dipped on the real work.
text: Remember on my first lick, got lost in a house / Had to dip, bro, quick, before the dogs came out
ref: 2020 April 7, “Did Alotta”, Kai Bandz (lyrics), 1:07:
glosses: To leave; to quit or abandon.
examples: text: I assured him that I'd been birding long enough to know that there were no guarantees with birds and I wouldn't have held it against him if I'd dipped.
ref: 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 124:
topics: biology
birdwatching
natural-sciences
ornithology
glosses: To miss out on seeing a sought after bird.
Derived terms: bedip
dip a toe into
dip into
dip me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians
dip me in honey and throw me to the lesbians
dip one's pen in someone's inkwell
dip one's toe in
dip one's toe in the water
dip one's wick
dip out
dippable
dipped candle
dipper
I'll be dipped
I'll be dipped in shit
redip
skinny dip
you don't dip your pen in company ink