dipping

Variant of dip

dip definition

dip (dip)

transitive verb dipped or Now Raredipt, dipping dip′·ping

  1. to put into or under liquid for a moment and then quickly take out; immerse
  2. to dye in this way
  3. to clean (sheep, hog, dogs, etc.) by bathing in disinfectant
  4. to make (a candle) by putting a wick repeatedly in melted tallow or wax
  5. to coat, plate, or galvanize by immersion
  6. to get or take out by, or as if by, scooping up with a container, the hand, etc.
  7. to lower and immediately raise again dip the flag in salute
  8. ☆ to put (snuff) on the gums, as with a snuff stick

Etymology: ME dippen < OE dyppan, to immerse < Gmc *dup-, to be deep: see dimple

intransitive verb

  1. to plunge into a liquid and quickly come out
  2. to sink or seem to sink suddenly the sun dips into the ocean
  3. to undergo a slight, usually temporary decline sales dipped in May
  4. to slope down
  5. to lower a container, the hand, etc. into liquid, a receptacle, etc., esp. in order to take something out: often figurative to dip into one's savings
  6. to read here and there in a book, etc., or inquire into a subject superficially
  7. Aeron. to drop suddenly before climbing

noun

  1. a dipping or being dipped
    1. a brief plunge into water or other liquid
    2. a brief swim
  2. a liquid into which something is dipped, as for dyeing
  3. whatever is removed by or used in dipping
  4. a candle made by dipping
    1. a downward slope or inclination
    2. the amount of this
  5. a slight hollow
  6. a short downward plunge, as of an airplane
    1. a sweet, liquid sauce for desserts
    2. ☆ a variously flavored, thick, creamy sauce, in which crackers, etc. are dipped to be eaten as appetizers
  7. Slang a pickpocket
  8. Geol., Mining the downward inclination of a stratum or vein, with reference to a horizontal plane
  9. Gym. the act of lowering oneself between parallel bars by bending the arms until the chin reaches the bar level, and then raising oneself by straightening the arms
  10. Physics
    1. the deviation of a dip needle from the horizontal
    2. the amount of such deviation
  11. Surveying the angular amount by which the horizon is below eye level

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.