What does dip mean?

What does dip mean?. The world's largest and most trusted free online dictionary: definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more.

What does dip mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[n] a depression in an otherwise level surface(there was a dip in the road)[v] immerse briefly into a liquid so as to wet, coat, or saturate(dip the garment into the cleaning solution dip the brush into the paint)[n] (physics) the angle that a magnetic needle makes with the plane of the ho

dip

dip - The Free Dictionary

[n] a depression in an otherwise level surface
(there was a dip in the road)

[v] immerse briefly into a liquid so as to wet, coat, or saturate
(dip the garment into the cleaning solution dip the brush into the paint)

[n] (physics) the angle that a magnetic needle makes with the plane of the horizon

[v] dip into a liquid while eating
(She dunked the piece of bread in the sauce)

[n] a thief who steals from the pockets or purses of others in public places

[v] go down momentarily
(Prices dipped)

[n] tasty mixture or liquid into which bite-sized foods are dipped

[v] stain an object by immersing it in a liquid

[n] a brief immersion

[v] take a small amount from
(I had to dip into my savings to buy him this present)

[n] a sudden sharp decrease in some quantity
(a drop of 57 points on the Dow Jones index there was a drop in pressure in the pulmonary artery a dip in prices when that became known the price of their stock went into free fall)

[v] switch (a car's headlights) from a higher to a lower beam

[n] a candle that is made by repeated dipping in a pool of wax or tallow

[v] lower briefly
(She dipped her knee)

[n] a brief swim in water

[v] appear to move downward
(The sun dipped below the horizon The setting sun sank below the tree line)

[n] a gymnastic exercise on the parallel bars in which the body is lowered and raised by bending and straightening the arms

[v] slope downwards
(Our property dips towards the river)

[v] dip into a liquid
(He dipped into the pool)

[v] place (candle wicks) into hot, liquid wax

[v] immerse in a disinfectant solution
(dip the sheep)

[v] plunge (one's hand or a receptacle) into a container
(He dipped into his pocket)

[v] scoop up by plunging one's hand or a ladle below the surface
(dip water out of a container)

Other vocabulary

d, d and c, d region, d'oyly carte, d-day, d-layer, d. h. lawrence, d. w. griffith, d.a., d.c., d.o.a., d.p.r.k., da, da gamma, da vinci, da'wah, dab, daba, dabble, dabbled, dabbler, dabbling duck, dabchick, daboecia, daboecia cantabrica, dacca, dace, dacelo, dacelo gigas, dacha, i, i chronicles, i corinthians, i esdra, i john, i kings, i maccabees, i peter, i samuel, i thessalonians, i timothy, i-beam, i. a. richards, i. f. stone, i. m. pei, i.d., i.e., i.e.d., i.q., i.w.w., ia, iaa, iaea, iago, iamb, iambic, iambus, ian douglas smith, ian fleming, ian lancaster fleming

Dictionary

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.

There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.

The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.