Dip | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Dip, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. DIPPED (less properly DIPT); p. pr. & vb. n. DIPPING.] [A-S. dippan, dyppan, Dan. dippe, Sw. doppa, allied to A-S. dēpan, dȳpan, to dip, baptize, O. Fries. depa, Goth. daupjan, O. Sax. dopian, L. Ger. döpen, Sw. döpa, D. doopen, O. H. Ger. taufjan, toufjan, N. H. Ger. taufen. Cf. DEEP.]

Sense 1. To plunge or immerse, especially to put for a moment into any liquid; to insert in a fluid and withdraw again.

The priest shall dip his finger in the blood. Lev. iv. 6.

One dip the pencil, and one string the lyre. Pope.

Sense 2. To immerse for baptism; to baptize by immersion. [Colloquial or contemptuous.] Fuller.

Sense 3. To wet, as if by immersing in a fluid; to moisten. [Rare.]

A cold, shuddering dew

Dips me all o’er. Milton.

Sense 4. To plunge, as into difficulty; to engage or compromise; to mortgage.

He was . . . dipped in the rebellion of the Commons. Dryden.

Sense 5. To take out, by immersing and removing again some receptacle, as a dipper, ladle, pail, &c.;—often with out; as, to dip water from a boiler; to dip out water.

Dipped candle, a candle made by repeatedly dipping a wick in melted grease.

Dĭp., v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To immerse one's self; to become plunged in a liquid; to sink below the horizon. The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out. Coleridge.

Sense 2. To perform the action of removing or taking out something, by immersing and withdrawing a receptacle;—hence, to thrust in and partake; to enjoy something by repeatedly taking of it. “The vulture dipping in Prometheus' side.” Granville. Whoever dips too deep will find death in the pot. L'Estrange.

Sense 3. 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.

Sense 4. To incline downward; to point to something below the horizon; as, strata of rock dip.

Dip, n.

noun

n. 1. The action of dipping or of plunging for a moment into a liquid. “The dip of oars in unison.” Glover.

Sense 2. Inclination downward; direction below an horizontal line; slope; pitch.

Sense 3. Gravy or sauce intended to be dipped out with a spoon.

Sense 4. A dipped candle.

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 line to the horizon and a tangent to the surface of the ocean. — Dip of the needle, or magnetic dip, the angle formed by a freely suspended magnetic needle, or the line of magnetic force, with an 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 course; — called also the pitch.

a, b, c, Dip of a Stratum.

A diagram showing tilted layers of rock dipping in one direction. — *a, b, c, Dip of a Stratum.*