dip

verb21

1. •
   to lower something into water or oil so that it is wet or covered for a moment

   • Dip your biscuit into your tea.
2. •
   To immerse oneself; to become plunged in a liquid; to sink.

   • The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out. — 1797
3. •
   To treat cattle or sheep by immersion in chemical solution.

   • The farmer is going to dip the cattle today.
4. •
   To immerse for baptism.

   • […] during the reigns of King James and King Charles I, there were but very few children dipped in the font. — 1722
5. •
   To wet, as if by immersing; to moisten.

   • A cold shuddering dew / Dips me all o'er. — 1646
6. •
   To plunge or engage thoroughly in any affair.

   • He was […] dipt in the rebellion of the Commons. — 1700
7. •
   (of a value or rate) To decrease slightly.
8. •
   To sink, drop, or slope downwards.

   • The sun is dipping over the now dry and clear Cornish landscape, and is a conclusion to a good day. — 2026
9. •
   To incline downward from the plane of the horizon.

   • Strata of rock dip.
10. •
    To lower a light's beam.

    • Dip your lights as you meet an oncoming car.
11. •
    To lower (a flag), particularly a national ensign, to a partially hoisted position in order to render or to return a salute. While lowered, the flag is said to be “at the dip.” A flag being carried on a staff may be dipped by leaning it forward at an approximate angle of 45 degrees.

    • The sailor rushed to the flag hoist to dip the flag in return.
12. •
    To perform (a bow or curtsey) by inclining the body.
13. •
    To perform a dip dance move (often phrased with the leader as the subject noun and the follower as the subject noun being dipped)
14. •
    To briefly lower the body by bending the knees while keeping the body in an upright position, usually in rhythm, as when singing or dancing.
15. •
    To take out, by dipping a dipper, ladle, or other receptacle, into a fluid and removing a part; often with out.
16. •
    To perform the action of plunging a dipper, ladle. etc. into a liquid or soft substance and removing a part.

    • Whoever dips too deep will find death in the pot. — 1692
17. •
    (informal) To leave; to quit or abandon.

    • When the time came, he dipped.
    • Twelve people worked on the project, but by the end, most of them had dipped on the real work.
18. •
    To consume snuff by placing a pinch behind the lip or under the tongue in order to absorb the desired chemical constituents.

    • He started dipping years ago.
19. •
    To use a dip stick to check oil level in an engine.
20. •
    (informal) To miss out on seeing a sought after bird.

    • I assured him that I'd been birding long enough to know that there were no guarantees with birds and I wouldn't have held it against him if I'd dipped. — 2005
21. •
    To engage as a pledge; to mortgage.

    • Live on the use and never dip thy lands. — 1693

noun22

1. •
   The action of dipping or plunging for a moment into a liquid.

   • With his precious charge / Embark'd, Sinicus gently steers along; / The dip of oars in unison awake / Without alarming silence; […] — 1786
2. •
   A sauce for dipping.

   • This onion dip is just scrumptious.
3. •
   A swim, usually a short swim to refresh.

   • I’m going for a dip before breakfast.
4. •
   A lower section of a road or geological feature.

   • There is a dip in the road ahead.
5. •
   (informal) A financial asset in decline, seen as an investment opportunity.
6. •
   Inclination downward; direction below a horizontal line; slope; pitch.
7. •
   The angle from horizontal of a planar geologic surface, such as a fault line.
8. •
   A gymnastic or bodybuilding exercise on 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.
9. •
   A move in many different styles of partner dances, often performed at the end of a dance, in which the follower leans far to the side and is supported by the leader.
10. •
    Finely ground tobacco, consumed by placing a small amount between the lip and gum.

    • Packed a lip full of beluga caviar after mistaking a tin for a can of dip and then spat the juice into an urn that I thought was a sombre spittoon. — 2018
11. •
    A tank or trough where cattle or sheep are immersed in chemicals to kill parasites.
12. •
    A sudden drop followed by a climb, usually to avoid obstacles or as the result of getting into an airhole.
13. •
    A dip stick.
14. •
    (informal) A foolish person.
15. •
    (informal) A diplomat.
16. •
    (slang, old-fashioned) A pickpocket.

    • 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
17. •
    Initialism of device-independent pixel.
18. •
    (informal) A diaper; diap, dipe.
19. •
    (informal) The act of missing out on seeing a sought after bird.

    • I'd missed them by a couple of hours. This dip did not bode well for the Hudwit. — 2005
20. •
    The viscid exudation that is dipped out from incisions in the trees. Virgin dip is the runnings of the first year, yellow dip the runnings of subsequent years.
21. •
    (dialect, UK) Fried bread.

    • My Dad, God bless him, rarely cooked anything, but if he ever did he would make himself an egg banjo! Fried bread? Or ‘dip’? — 2020
22. •
    (no longer used) A dipped candle.

    • by the feeble light of the dip, he beheld the pale, haggard face of Smallbones — 1837

noun3

1. •
   Acronym of dual in-line package.
2. •
   Acronym of defence investment plan, any of the periodic multiyear strategic plans for defence spending in the United Kingdom.

   • It became clear that future defence investment plans would have to confront a riskier world.
3. •
   Acronym of dependency inversion principle.