Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Dip?

\Dip\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Dipped}or {Dipt} (?); p. pr. & vb. n. {Dipping}.] [OE. dippen, duppen, AS. dyppan; akin to Dan. dyppe, Sw. doppa, and to AS. d?pan to baptize, OS. d?pian, D. doopen, G. taufen, Sw. d["o]pa, Goth. daupjan, Lith. dubus deep, hollow, OSlav. dupl? hollow, and to E. dive. Cf. {Deep}, {Dive}.] 1. To plunge or immerse; especially, to put for a moment into a liquid; to insert into a fluid and withdraw again. The priest shall dip his finger in the blood. --Lev. iv. 6. [Wat'ry fowl] now dip their pinions in the briny deep. --Pope. While the prime swallow dips his wing. --Tennyson. 2. To immerse for baptism; to baptize by immersion. --Book of Common Prayer. Fuller. 3. To wet, as if by immersing; to moisten. [Poetic] A cold shuddering dew Dips me all o'er. --Milton. 4. To plunge or engage thoroughly in any affair. He was . . . dipt in the rebellion of the Commons. --Dryden. 5. To take out, by dipping a dipper, ladle, or other receptacle, into a fluid and removing a part; -- often with out; as, to dip water from a boiler; to dip out water. 6. To engage as a pledge; to mortgage. [Obs.] Live on the use and never dip thy lands. --Dryden. {Dipped candle}, a candle made by repeatedly dipping a wick in melted tallow. {To dip snuff}, to take snuff by rubbing it on the gums and teeth. [Southern U. S.] {To dip the colors} (Naut.), to lower the colors and return them to place; -- a form of naval salute.
\Dip\, v. i. 1. To immerse one's self; to become plunged in a liquid; to sink. The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out. --Coleridge. 2. To perform the action of plunging some receptacle, as a dipper, ladle. etc.; into a liquid or a soft substance and removing a part. Whoever dips too deep will find death in the pot. --L'Estrange. 3. To pierce; to penetrate; -- followed by in or into. When I dipt into the future. --Tennyson. 4. To enter slightly or cursorily; to engage one's self desultorily or by the way; to partake limitedly; -- followed by in or into. ``Dipped into a multitude of books.'' --Macaulay. 5. To incline downward from the plane of the horizon; as, strata of rock dip. 6. To dip snuff. [Southern U.S.]
\Dip\, n. 1. The action of dipping or plunging for a moment into a liquid. ``The dip of oars in unison.'' --Glover. 2. Inclination downward; direction below a horizontal line; slope; pitch. 3. A liquid, as a sauce or gravy, served at table with a ladle or spoon. [Local, U.S.] --Bartlett. 4. A dipped candle. [Colloq.] --Marryat. {Dip of the horizon} (Astron.), the angular depression of the seen or visible horizon below the true or natural horizon; the angle at the eye of an observer between a horizontal line and a tangent drawn from the eye to the surface of the ocean. {Dip of the needle}, or {Magnetic dip}, the angle formed, in a vertical plane, by a freely suspended magnetic needle, or the line of magnetic force, with a horizontal line; -- called also {inclination}. {Dip of a stratum} (Geol.), its greatest angle of inclination to the horizon, or that of a line perpendicular to its direction or strike; -- called also the {pitch}.
\Dip\, n. 1. A gymnastic exercise on the parallel bars in which the performer, resting on his hands, lets his arms bend and his body sink until his chin is level with the bars, and then raises himself by straightening his arms. 2. In the turpentine industry, the viscid exudation, which is dipped out from incisions in the trees; as, virgin dip (the runnings of the first year), yellow dip (the runnings of subsequent years). 3. (A["e]ronautics) A sudden drop followed by a climb, usually to avoid obstacles or as the result of getting into an airhole.