dip

dip [dip]

vt.

dipped or occas.Now Rare dipt, dipping [ME dippen < OE dyppan, to immerse < Gmc * dup-, to be deep: see DIMPLE]

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

vi.

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

n.

1. a dipping or being dipped

2.

a) a brief plunge into water or other liquid

b) a brief swim

3. a liquid into which something is dipped, as for dyeing

4. whatever is removed by or used in dipping

5. a candle made by dipping

6.

a) a downward slope or inclination

b) the amount of this

7. a slight hollow

8. a short downward plunge, as of an airplane

9.

a) a sweet, liquid sauce for desserts

☆ b) a variously flavored, thick, creamy sauce, in which crackers, etc. are dipped to be eaten as appetizers

10. Slang a pickpocket

11. Geol. Mining the downward inclination of a stratum or vein, with reference to a horizontal plane

12. 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

13. Physics

a) the deviation of a dip needle from the horizontal

b) the amount of such deviation

14. Surveying the angular amount by which the horizon is below eye level