dipper
(ˈdɪpə(r))
[f. dip v. + -er1.]
1. One who dips, in various senses; spec. a. One who immerses something in a fluid; chiefly in technical uses.
| 1611 Cotgr., Trempeur, a dipper, wetter, moistener. 1762 Derrick Lett. (1767) II. 51 There are women always ready to present you with a cup of water who call themselves Dippers. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 473 By the side of this tub stands the dipper, and a boy, his assistant. 1881 Guide Worcest. Porcel. Wks. 8 The action of the Dipper shows the..process in glazing..wares. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet ii. ii. (1883) 130 There was in the room [at Epsom Wells] a dipper, as they call the women who hand the water to those who go to drink it. 1883 Birm. Daily Post 11 Oct., Tallow Chandlers.—Wanted immediately, a first-class Dipper. |
b. One who ‘dips’ snuff: see dip v. 5.
| 1870 W. M. Baker New Timothy 75 (Cent. Dict.) The fair dipper holds in her lap a bottle containing the most pungent Scotch snuff, and in her mouth a short stick of soft wood, the end of which is chewed into a sort of brush. |
c. One who ‘dips’ into a book, etc.: see dip v. 14.
| 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 326, I became also a lounger in the Bodleian library, and a great dipper into books. 1889 Temple Bar Mag. Dec. 553 The dippers are those readers who are only by an euphemism called readers. |
d. Thieves' slang. A pickpocket. (Farmer 1891.)
| 1889 in Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang. 1896 A. Morrison Child of Jago xi. 111 Such dippers—such pickpockets—as could dress well. 1968 M. Allingham Cargo of Eagles ii. 34 [The wallet] could have been pinched..and ditched there... Dippers often do that. |
2. One who uses immersion in baptism; esp. an Anabaptist or Baptist: spec. one of a sect of American Baptists, called also Dunkers.
| 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely i. v. 200 To be dippers and baptisers. 1642 Featly (title), The Dippers dipt, or the Anabaptists duck'd and plung'd over Head and Ears, at a Disputation in Southwark. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Amicus Rediv., Fie, man, to turn dipper at your years, after so many tracts in favour of sprinkling only. 1887 C. W. Sutton in Dict. Nat. Biog. XI. 5/2 He became a dipper or anabaptist (immersed 6 Nov. 1644). |
3. A name given to various birds which dip or dive in water. a. The Water Ouzel, Cinclus aquaticus; also other species of the genus, as, in N. America, C. Mexicanus. b. locally in England: The Kingfisher. c. = dabchick 1, didapper 1. ? Obs. d. in U.S. A species of duck, Bucephala albeola, the buffle.
| 1388 Wyclif Lev. xi. 17 An owle, and dippere [1382 deuedep, deuedoppe.]. ― Deut. xiv. 17 A dippere, a pursirioun, and a reremous..alle in her kynde. 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. 340 The Didapper, or Dipper, or Dobchick, or small Doucker. 1752 Sir J. Hill Hist. Anim. 446 (Jod.), The dobchick..we call it by several names expressive of its diving; the didapper, the dipper, etc. 1833 Selby in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club I. No. i. 20 The only bird which attracted notice was the dipper (Cinclus aquaticus). 1864 Thoreau Maine W. iii. 170 A brood of twelve black dippers, half grown, came paddling by. 1881 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Dipper, the King-fisher. 1882 A. Hepburn in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club IX. No. 3. 504 Of the Thrush family, the Dipper or Watercrow frequented all the streams. |
4. A genus of gastropod molluscs, Bulla.
| 1776 Da Costa Conchol. 174 (Jod.) The sixth family is the nuces, seu bullæ; commonly called the pewits eggs, or dipping snails, but which I shall henceforward call dippers, or seanuts. 1835 Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. I. ix. 276 The dippers (Bulla) which are furnished with a singular organ or gizzard that proves their predaceous or carnivorous habits. |
5. a. A utensil for dipping up water, etc.: spec. a ladle consisting of a bowl with a long handle. (Chiefly U.S.)
| 1801 Mason Supp. Johnson, Dipper, a spoon made in a certain form. Being a modern invention, it is not often mentioned in books. 1828 Webster, Dipper..2 A vessel used to dip water or other liquor; a ladle. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. xxii. 107 Water brought in birchen dippers. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Dipper, an utensil for taking up fluids in a brewery. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 155 The little tin dipper was scratched all over. 1885 G. Allen Babylon xi, Each of whom brought his own dipper, plate, knife, fork. 1891 R. Kipling Naulahka iv, It's like trying to scoop up the ocean with a dipper. |
b. The popular name in the United States for the configuration of seven bright stars in Ursa Major (called in Britain ‘the Plough’, or ‘Charles's Wain’). Little Dipper: the similar configuration of seven stars in Ursa Minor.
| 1842 Lowell (Mass.) Offering II. 234, 236 (Th.), You all know the Dipper? Yes, it is in the Great Bear. The Little Dipper is in Ursa Minor. 1858 Thoreau Autumn (1894) 74 Its [comet's] tail is at least as long as the whole of the Great Dipper. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. II. 111 The constellation of the Dipper..pointing to the North Star. 1890 C. A. Young Uranography §5 The familiar Dipper is sloping downward in the north-west. |
c. In full dipper dredge. A type of dredging boat or machine (see quots.).
| 1877 Encycl. Brit. VII. 465/1 The dipper dredge consists of a barge, with a derrick-crane reaching over the stern, suspending a large wrought-iron bucket which brings up the dredged material. 1879 Scribner's Monthly Nov. 55/1 The channel has also been assisted somewhat in its development, by an Osgood dipper dredge. a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Dipper, a form of dredging machine which has a large ladle on the end of a spar. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. IV. 634/2 Such a crude form of dipper dredge is still to be found in China. |
6. Photogr. An apparatus for immersing negatives in a chemical solution: see quots.
| 1859 Photogr. News 186 Dipper, the piece of glass or other substance on which the iodised plate is laid, in order to be dipped into the nitrate of silver bath. 1878 Abney Photogr. 79 The dipper, employed for carrying the plate into the solution during the operation of sensitising, may be conveniently made of pure silver wire. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. III. 65 In this bath must be a dipper for the purpose of raising and lowering the plate during the sensitising process. |
7. a. A receptacle for oil, varnish, etc., fastened to a palette.
| 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 199 The Dipper is made so that it can be attached to the palette. It serves to contain oil, varnish, or other vehicle used. 1883 Spectator 3 Nov. 1413 It blew the medium out of its dipper, and spread it in a shower upon the middle of the picture. |
b. = dip n. 8.
| 1891 R. Wallace Rural Econ. Austral. & N.Z. xvi. 247 The dipper..consists of a narrow well or trough of masonry. 1956 J. Gibbons et al. in D. L. Linton Sheffield 258 Installation of electricity, sheep pens and dippers. |
c. As the name of various mechanical devices or instruments; big dipper, see big a. B. 2.
| 1925 Morris Owner's Man. 28 In the bottom case are fitted the troughs for feeding oil to the connecting-rod big ends through the oil dippers which are fitted to same. 1928 Daily Express 28 Sept. 9 It should be made compulsory for all motorists to have dippers affixed to their headlights. 1951 N. Balchin Way through Wood iii. 46, I suppose he was driving dipped and it was one of those dippers that switches off the offside light. 1963 [see headlight]. |
8. attrib. and Comb., as dipper-bird (see 3 a); dipper-clam (U.S.), a bivalve mollusc, Mactra solidissima, common on the Atlantic coast of the United States; dipper-gourd (U.S.), a gourd used as a dipper (sense 5); dipper switch = dip-switch.
| 1894 Crockett Raiders (ed. 3) 260 A man stole off up the waterside, jumping across it in running skips like a dipper bird. 1880 New Virginians I. 199 A bucket of spring-water, with a dipper-gourd in it. 1935 Times 1 Oct. 8/4 The equipment includes such fittings as self-cancelling traffic indicators..and a foot-operated dipper switch. 1965 Priestley & Wisdom Good Driving ii. 20 A dipper switch..enables you to dip the beam. |