dipping

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dip/dɪp/

▶verb (dips, dipping, dipped)

• 1 (dip something in/into) put or let something down quickly or briefly in or into (liquid).

  ■ make (a candle) by immersing a wick repeatedly in hot wax.

• 2 sink, drop, or slope downwards.

  ■ (of a level or amount) temporarily become lower or smaller.

  ■ lower or move downwards.

  ■ Brit. lower the beam of (a vehicle's headlights).

• 3 (dip into) put a hand or implement into (a bag or container) in order to take something out.

  ■ spend from or make use of (one's financial resources).

• 4 (dip out) Austral./NZ informal fail.

▶noun

• 1 an act of dipping, especially a brief swim.

• 2 a thick sauce in which pieces of food are dipped before eating.

• 3 a brief downward slope followed by an upward one.

  ■ an instance of dropping briefly before rising again.

• 4 the angle made with the horizontal at any point by the earth's magnetic field.

  ■ Geology the angle a stratum makes with the horizontal.

  ■ Astronomy & Surveying the apparent depression of the horizon from the line of observation, due to the curvature of the earth.

• 5 N. Amer. informal a stupid or foolish person.

– phrases
dip one's toe into (or in) begin to do (something) cautiously.

– origin OE dyppan, of Gmc origin; rel. to deep.