dips

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of dip.

   Creamy dips paired well with the platter of fresh vegetables.

   The trail's sudden dips slowed the cyclists to a crawl.

   Note

   Only the countable uses of dip take this plural: dips in a road, two sheep dips on a farm, a few quick dips in the sea. Where dip names a general downward slope or pitch, it is often uncountable and stays singular, as in the dip of a hillside. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, so the road dips and the dips in the road are told apart by the words around them.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of dip.

   The pilot dips the wings to greet the crowd below.

   The temperature dips sharply once the desert sun goes down.

   Note

   Whether it needs an object depends on the meaning. A captain dips the ensign in salute and a farmer dips the sheep, but a rate simply dips, and so does a swimmer slipping into cold water. In every case the -s marks a singular subject in the present, and it carries the full range of the verb, from lowering a light's beam to a slight fall in value.

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