dipping

Pluraldippings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of dip.

   Dipping the brush in paint, she began the first stroke.

   The road kept dipping toward the valley below.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty: it carries the verb into progressive tenses and turns it into a noun-like gerund. Transitive uses take an object, as in dipping a brush, dipping sheep in a chemical bath, dipping the headlights, or dipping a flag in salute. Intransitive ones stand alone, as in prices dipping slightly or a swimmer dipping into the water. Only the nouns take the plural dippings; the gerund never does.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   An act or process of immersing something in a liquid.

   The repeated dipping of the fabric built up layers of wax resist.

   A brief dipping in the developing solution fixed the image.

   Similarimmersion, dunking, soaking

   Note

   Countable whenever the immersions are counted one by one. Holinshed's chronicle of 1587 describes baptism "with three dippings", and Hogarth's The Analysis of Beauty (1753) imagines white silk dyed to black "by several dippings". The plural suits work done in stages, such as baptism, dyeing or waxing. The uncountable form names the process as a whole.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of inclining or sloping downward.

   The gentle dipping of the road made the descent feel easy.

   A sudden dipping of the plane's nose startled the passengers.

   Similarslope, descent, drop, decline

   Oppositerise, ascent, climb

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The act of lifting or moving a liquid with a dipper, ladle, or similar tool.

   The cook's steady dipping transferred the broth into each jar.

   A practiced dipping of the ladle served the stew without a single drip.

   Similarladling, scooping

5. 5
   nounUSuncountable

   The use of moist snuff tobacco held in the mouth, usually tucked between the lip and gum.

   Dipping gave him a quick hit of nicotine without any smoke.

   Years of dipping left tobacco stains along his gum line.

   Note

   An American word for a habit, named after its product: moist snuff sold as dipping tobacco. Nothing is immersed. The tobacco is tucked between lip or cheek and gum, in the upper or lower mouth. A listener unfamiliar with the American use may hear the ordinary sense of immersing, so outside the US it can be clearer to name the snuff outright.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   Immersion of sheet metal or metal objects, especially brass, in acid or a similar bath to clean them or make them shine.

   The workshop used dipping to restore the brass fittings to a high shine.

   Repeated dipping stripped the oxidation from the copper plates.

   Similarpickling

7. 7
   noununcountable

   The act or fact of failing to see a bird one had hoped to observe.

   Repeated dipping on the same species became a running joke in the group.

   His dipping at the reservoir meant another trip the following weekend.

   Note

   A birdwatcher's word for coming home without the bird you went looking for. Sean Dooley's The Big Twitch (2005) calls one fruitless week "the greatest dipping fest in Australian birding history": five target species, a week of searching, none seen. Birders use it of a particular sought-after species, and it often takes on, as in dipping on a bird, with a wry tone that makes the loss easier to admit.

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