dip
Pluraldips
Pluraldips
- 1A thick, savory sauce that food is dunked into before eating.
The chef paired the crackers with a roasted garlic dip.
Guests crowded around the table for the spinach dip.
Similarsauce
- 2A brief plunge of an object into a liquid before lifting it back out.
A short dip in the dye gave the fabric its deep color.
He cleaned the nib with a single dip in the inkwell.
Similardunk, immersion, plunge
Note
The moment a blade or object meets the water can be the whole point. In Richard Glover's The Athenaid (before 1786), the dip of oars in unison is what stirs the silence: each stroke entering the water, again and again. Used this way, the noun names a repeated rhythm rather than a single plunge.
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- 5A downward stretch in a road or landscape where the surface drops lower.
Rainwater collected in the dip at the bottom of the lane.
From the ridge, the path follows a gentle dip toward the river.
Similarhollow, depression, descent, slope
Oppositerise
Note
The oldest root shows here: Old English dyppan, the verb all these downward meanings grow from, is related to deep. Railway writers use the noun for a short fall in the line between climbs. A runaway engine comes to rest in the dip between two places, and a locomotive gathers speed in the short dip before Monsal Dale. It usually takes in or between: a dip in the road.
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- 7A temporary fall in an asset's price, viewed by investors as a chance to buy at a lower cost.
Like snapping up a bargain when prices fall, betting they'll bounce back.
Seasoned traders often buy the dip rather than waiting for a full recovery.
The stock saw a sharp dip before climbing to new highs.
Similardrop, fall, decline, slump, pullback
Note
Market talk with a strategy built in: a dip is not just a fall but a fall worth buying into. The set phrase is buy the dip, or buy the dips. It advises purchasing while the price is low, on the bet that it will recover. The word carries an optimism that decline or drop do not.
- 8To plunge into a liquid or sink down beneath its surface.
The buoy dipped beneath the waves with each passing swell.
Otters dip below the surface to hunt for fish.
Similarsink, dive, plunge, submerge, duck
Note
Whatever sinks into the water need not be wet. Coleridge writes "The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out," treating the sea's edge at the horizon as a surface the sun goes under. The verb needs no object and pairs naturally with below, beneath or into.
- 9A partner-dance move, often the finale, in which the follower leans far to one side while the leader supports them.
The couple finished their routine with a deep dip that drew applause.
A well-timed dip can make the final pose unforgettable.
Note
A showpiece rather than a step, the dip usually closes a dance. The follower leans far to the side, and the leader takes the weight. It belongs to many partner styles rather than to one, which is why dancers praise a dip by its depth or timing rather than by a style's name. The action itself is the verb of dipping a partner.
- 10To leave or take off, often quickly and without much notice.
She dipped right after the meeting wrapped up.
We should dip before the crowd gets too big.
Similarleave, split, bounce, bail, scram
Note
Casual speech for leaving, often abruptly: when the time came, he dipped. With on, departure turns into desertion. "Most of them had dipped on the real work" means they quit and left others to finish. Song lyrics favor had to dip, for a hasty exit. Keep it for conversation, not formal writing.
- 11Tobacco ground to a fine texture, used by holding a pinch of it inside the mouth between the lip and gum.
Several players reached for their dip during the long rain delay.
He spat after settling a pinch of dip behind his lip.
Similarsnuff
Note
Ground tobacco for the mouth, and the substance behind the verb of taking snuff. It is tucked between lip and gum rather than smoked. It comes in a tin or can, and users speak of packing a lip with it. Snuff and chewing tobacco are its near synonyms.
- 12A strength exercise on parallel bars in which you lower your body by bending your arms, then push back up by straightening them.
He finished the workout with one slow, controlled dip.
Adding dips to her routine quickly built upper-body strength.
Note
A gym word, often in the plural: athletes do dips and add dips to a routine. The depth is the standard: the body sinks until the chin is level with the parallel bars. The real work comes from straightening the arms to rise again, which loads the triceps and chest.
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- 14To immerse a person in water as part of the baptism rite.
The priest dipped the infant gently into the stone font.
Certain congregations dip believers fully under the water.
Similarimmerse, baptize, submerge
Note
Here the word names the manner of baptism, not just the rite: Charles Wheatly, writing around 1722, observes that under King James and Charles I very few children were dipped in the font. Thomas Fuller's "new dipt Sectaries" uses the older spelling dipt and gives the word a pointed edge, using dipping to set apart members of a sect. The verb takes the person as its object: dip a child, dipped in the font.
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- 16To lower the beam of a light, especially a vehicle's headlights, to reduce glare for others.
Drivers should dip their headlights for oncoming traffic.
He dipped his high beams as he neared the village.
Note
A courtesy shared by road and rail. You dip your lights as you meet an oncoming car. J. G. Click's 1953 Railway Magazine piece on the Lötschberg Railway has Driver Wegg dipping his lights for an approaching train, and the other driver politely doing the same. The object is the lights or headlights, not the vehicle.
- 17To lower one's dance partner backward in a controlled bend, the leader supporting the follower through the move.
The instructor showed us how to dip a partner without losing balance.
He dipped her at the final beat, and the crowd applauded.
Note
The grammar mirrors the partnership. The leader is the subject and the follower the object: he dipped her, dip your partner. In the passive, the follower is the one being dipped, and the leader stays the one who acts. The result is the closing dance figure.
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- 19To take out part of a fluid by plunging a dipper, ladle, or similar container into it and lifting some away.
The cook dipped broth from the simmering kettle.
They dip water out of the rain barrel with an old tin can.
Similarladle, scoop, bail, spoon
Note
With a ladle, the object becomes what you take, not what you plunge in: you dip water from a boiler, or dip out water. Out attaches so often that it is part of the pattern. In the intransitive use, the object drops away and the verb usually takes into: dip into the stew.
- 20To reach into a liquid or soft substance with a ladle or dipper and draw a portion out.
She dipped into the stew to taste it.
Guests dip into the punch bowl with a small ladle.
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- 22To plunge into or become thoroughly engaged in some matter or undertaking.
She dipped into the family business and soon ran it entirely.
New volunteers dip into the cause and rarely look back.
Note
Being dipped in an affair can mean being implicated in it. John Dryden, in 1700, writes of a man "dipt in the rebellion of the Commons," a passive that marks involvement in something serious. The spelling dipt is the same older form found in the baptismal verb.
- 23To incline or slope downward from the level of the horizon.
The rock layers dip steeply toward the riverbed.
Beyond the ridge, the land dips into a wide hollow.
Similarslope, descend, drop, fall, slant
Note
Geologists use the verb in step with the measured angle: strata dip, and the noun gives how steeply. The verb takes no object and usually takes a direction, as in dip steeply, dip toward the river, or dip below a canal. Engineers use it the same way for tunnels that dip under an obstacle and then rise on a stated gradient.
- 24To check the oil level in an engine with a dipstick.
Mechanics dip the oil with the engine off and the car parked on level ground.
She pulled over, dipped the oil, and found it well below the minimum mark.
Similarcheck
- 25The angle from horizontal at which a planar geologic surface, such as a rock bed or fault, slopes downward.
The geologist recorded the dip of the fault at thirty degrees.
A steep dip in the strata suggested folding under pressure.
Similarinclination, slope, tilt
Note
Geology puts a number on the general downward slant. A bed, fault or joint has a dip in degrees from the horizontal. Field geologists record it with strike, the direction of the surface's level line, and they measure dip at right angles to that line. A steep dip points to tilting or folding, while flat-lying strata have a dip near zero.
- 26To treat cattle or sheep by immersing them in a chemical solution, usually to kill parasites.
Ranchers dip their flocks each season to kill mites and lice.
The vet dipped the whole herd twice that summer.
Note
Farm usage keeps verb and place in step. The farmer dips the cattle, and the animals go through the chemical trough of the same name. The bath targets parasites such as ticks, mites and lice. The object of the verb is the animals rather than the solution.
- 27A foolish or dim-witted person.
Only a dip would leave the gate wide open like that.
She called her brother a dip for believing the prank.
Similardope, idiot, fool, dimwit, nitwit
Note
A separate word that only looks like the others: the noun for a fool is a back-formation from dippy, with no link to dipping into liquid. It is informal and fairly mild. It fits the soldier who asks whether a five-mile run means bringing kitbags, and so earns everyone a heavier load.
- 28A tank or trough in which cattle or sheep are immersed in a chemical solution to kill parasites.
The flock was driven through the dip one by one.
Workers drained and refilled the dip between herds.
- 29A measuring stick used to check the level of oil or other fluid in a tank or engine.
She read the oil mark on the dip and topped it off.
The dip showed the tank was nearly empty.
Similardipstick
- 30A sudden downward drop followed by a climb back, often to avoid an obstacle or after hitting an air pocket.
The pilot warned of a possible dip as they crossed the mountains.
A sudden dip in the flight startled the passengers.
Note
Aviation has its own lurch: an aircraft suddenly loses height and then climbs straight back. A pilot may make the maneuver deliberately to clear an obstacle. It can also happen involuntarily, when the aircraft falls into an air pocket, or airhole. Passengers feel it as a drop, while pilots treat it as a brief departure from level flight.
- 31A thief who steals from people's pockets or bags.
The Moocher was a "dip" in a dilettante sort of way, and his particular graft was boarding street-cars with his papers and grabbing women's pocket-books.
1906, Fred L. Boalt, "The Snitcher" - 32A candle made by plunging a wick again and again into melted wax or tallow.
by the feeble light of the dip, he beheld the pale, haggard face of Smallbones
1837, Frederick Marryat, Snarleyyow - 33The sticky resin collected from cuts made in pine trees, called virgin dip in the first year of tapping and yellow dip after that.
- 34A failure to see a rare bird that one has gone out of one's way to find.
- 35Bread that has been fried in fat or oil.
- 36To lower a flag, especially a national ensign, part of the way down as a salute or a reply to one, or to tilt a carried flag forward.
- 37To use snuff by tucking a pinch between the lip and gum or beneath the tongue, so the nicotine passes into the body.
- 38To pledge or mortgage property as security for a debt.
- 39To fail to see a rare bird that one has traveled in hopes of finding.
- 40An abbreviation for device-independent pixel, a unit of length in software layouts that stays the same regardless of screen density.
- 41A diplomat, a person who represents a country abroad.
- 42A baby's diaper.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English dippen, from Old English dyppan, going back through Proto-West Germanic *duppjan to Proto-Germanic *dupjaną ("to dip"). It is related to the word deep.
A back-formation from dippy.