▪ I. dipping, vbl. n.
(ˈdɪpɪŋ)
[f. dip v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb dip in various senses.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 121/2 Dyppynge yn lycore, intinctio. 1548 Cranmer Catech. 215 He knoweth not what baptisme is..nor what the dyppyng in the water doth betoken. 1655 Jer. Taylor Unum Necess. v. §4 (R.) That which is dyed with many dippings is in grain, and can very hardly be washed out. 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 434 Nice Observations of the Variations and Dippings of the Needle, in different Places. 1719 J. T. Philipps 34 Conferences 218, I ask'd them, how daily Dipping and Plunging did avail them? 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Lit. Wks. (Bohn) II. 113 No hope, no sublime augury, cheers the student..but only a casual dipping here and there. 1867 J. Ker Lett. (1890) 33 From any little dippings of conversation I had among the people. 1870 R. Pumpelly Across Amer. & Asia i. 1 The woman a very hag, ever following the disgusting habit of dipping—filling the air, and covering her clothes with snuff. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 705/1 Dipping. 1 The process of brightening ornamental brass-work..The work is..Dipped in a bath of pure nitrous acid for an instant. 1875 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. v. vi. §3. 348 The tackle for dipping is much more simple than that employed in whipping. 1882 Standard 2 Sept. 6/4 The Prisoner said she had only had a month for ‘dipping’ (picking pockets). 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 22 Improved Mast to do away with Dipping of Lug. |
2. concr. a. A liquid preparation in which things are dipped for any purpose: a wash for sheep; dubbing for leather (
Sc.).
| 1825–80 Jamieson, Dipping, the name given to a composition of boiled oil and grease, used by curriers for softening leather, and making it more fit for resisting dampness. 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Dipping, a strong poisonous liquor, for dipping sheep, to kill vermin, and to prevent the scab. |
b. A grade of turpentine. (
Cf. dip n. 8 b.)
U.S.| 1832 D. J. Browne Sylva Amer. 232 The turpentine thus procured is the best, and is called pure dipping. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., chiefly in reference to technical processes, as
dipping-bath,
dipping-house,
dipping-ladle,
dipping-liquid,
dipping-machine,
dipping-net,
dipping-pan,
dipping-process,
dipping-room,
dipping-tank,
dipping-trough,
dipping-tub,
dipping-tube,
dipping-vat,
dipping-vessel,
dipping-works; also
Naut. (
cf. dip v. 6), as
dipping-line,
dipping-lug,
dipping-mark; also
dipping-frame, a frame used in dipping tallow candles, and in dyeing;
† dipping-place, a baptistery;
dipping-shell,
-snail = dipper 4;
dipping-well, the receptacle in front of an isobath inkstand;
dipping-wheel U.S., a wheel consisting of revolving buckets or nets set in a river for catching fish.
| 1841 Awards Highl. & Agric. Soc. Scotland, To Mr. Thomas Bigg, London, for a Sheep *Dipping Apparatus. |
| 1894 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. XLI. 3 Procure a glass vertical *dipping bath with a glass dipper. |
| 1893 Labour Commission Gloss., *Dipping House, the part of the factory in which the operation of dipping..is carried on. Dipping House Women, are the women and girls in the potting industry who clean the ware after it has been dipped and become dry. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Dipping-ladle, a metal ladle for taking boiling pitch from the cauldron. |
| 1886 Caulfeild Seamanship Notes 1 Work *dipping-line and hoist sail. |
| c 1865 G. Gore in Circ. Sc. I. 216/1 He will require several..pans, one containing nitric acid, another filled with ‘*dipping’ liquid. |
| 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pocket-bk. vi. (ed. 2) 214 Sling a *dipping lug 1/3 from the foremost yard-arm. |
| 1886 C. Scott Sheep-farming 145 The material best adapted for making the tub of a *dipping machine is concrete... On a sheep farm the dipping-trough should be always the landlord's property, and a fixture. |
| c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 7 How would you dip a ‘lug’? Lower the halyards to the *dipping mark. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Dipping-net, a small net used for taking shad and other fish out of the water. |
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 705/1 *Dipping-pan (Stereotyping), a square, cast-iron tray in which the floating-plate and plaster-cast are placed for obtaining a stereo⁓type cast. |
| 1616 MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Payd vnto a carpenter for making of a *depping place xvjd. 1766 Entick London IV. 374 In this parish [is] the Ana⁓baptist dipping-place. |
| 1881 Guide Worcest. Porcel. Wks. 27 From the *dipping room the ware is brought to the drying stove. |
| 1711 Phil. Trans. XXVII. 352 A sort of *Diping Shell, very common on the Shoars of Jamaica and Barbadoes. 1776 *Dipping-snail [see dipper 4]. |
| 1903 Daily Chron. 10 Feb. 6/4 The molten spelter, with which the *dipping tanks were filled ready for the day's work. |
| 1853 Catal. R. Agric. Soc. Show 1 Sheep Dipping Apparatus..It consists of a *dipping-tub, a draining-vessel, and an inclined plane. |
| 1883 Syd. Soc. Lex., *Dipping-tube, a fine glass tube used to collect a small quantity of liquid or some solid matter in a liquid, for examination under the microscope. |
| a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Dipping vat, the trough containing fine glazing slip in which biscuit ware is dipped to be covered with the material which, baked on, forms glaze. |
| c 1865 Letheby in Circ. Sc. I. 93/2 The tallow is kept in the *dipping-vessel, at a temperature just over the point of solidification. |
| 1889 Durham Univ. Jrnl. 196 It..has a small *dipping-well in which the ink is always at the same height. |
| a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Dipping wheel, a contrivance used in Southern rivers to meet local demand for fish. It is set in the stream so as to be turned by the current, and has a number of dip-nets which raise the fish and tumble them out at the axis in the manner of the scoop-wheel. |
▸
dipping sauce n. Cookery a sauce served as a dip to accompany a meal or dish;
cf. dip n.1 9c.
| 1948 Fresno (Calif.) Bee (Electronic text) 30 July The word ‘dope’ was borrowed..from the Dutch word doop, ‘a *dipping sauce’. 1974 Times 14 Dec. 10/7 Tempura..with a dipping sauce on the side. 2002 Nation's Restaurant News 3 June 35 (caption) Chicken fingers with two special dipping sauces. |
▪ II. ˈdipping, ppl. a. [f. dip v. + -ing2.] That dips, in various senses: see the verb.
spec. Of the beams of headlights: lowered or capable of being lowered (
cf. dip v. 6 d).
| 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. i. 12 With sloping masts and dipping prow. 1866 Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. xlvi, With formal dipping curtseys the ladies separated. 1869 J. Ingelow Raven in White Chine vi, With a crimson hue The dipping sun endowed that silver flood. 1887 Stevenson Underwoods i. iii. 4 My dipping paddle scarcely shakes The berry in the bramble-brakes. 1922 Motor 7 Nov. 744/2 (caption) Duco dipping headlights. 1957 Act 5 & 6 Eliz. II c. 51 §3 No light shown by a vehicle, other than a dipping headlight, shall be moved by swivelling, deflecting or otherwise while the vehicle is in motion. |
Hence
dippingly adv., in a dipping way.
| 1852 G. W. Curtis Lotos-eating 67 The summer-bird of a traveller who skims up the Hudson dippingly. |