dip vs dipper

dip

noun
  • A sauce for dipping. 

  • A diplomat. 

  • A swim, usually a short swim to refresh. 

  • A lower section of a road or geological feature. 

  • The moist form of snuff tobacco. 

  • 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. 

  • 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. 

  • A sudden drop followed by a climb, usually to avoid obstacles or as the result of getting into an airhole. 

  • Fried bread. 

  • A foolish person. 

  • A dip stick. 

  • 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. 

  • A tank or trough where cattle or sheep are immersed in chemicals to kill parasites. 

  • Inclination downward; direction below a horizontal line; slope; pitch. 

  • The angle from horizontal of a planar geologic surface, such as a fault line. 

  • The act of missing out on seeing a sought after bird. 

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

  • A financial asset in decline, seen as an investment opportunity. 

verb
  • To incline downward from the plane of the horizon. 

  • To perform a dip dance move (often phrased with the leader as the subject noun and the follower as the subject noun being dipped) 

  • To take out, by dipping a dipper, ladle, or other receptacle, into a fluid and removing a part; often with out. 

  • To immerse oneself; to become plunged in a liquid; to sink. 

  • To treat cattle or sheep by immersion in chemical solution. 

  • 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. 

  • To perform the action of plunging a dipper, ladle. etc. into a liquid or soft substance and removing a part. 

  • To lower into a liquid. 

  • To miss out on seeing a sought after bird. 

  • To immerse for baptism. 

  • To use a dip stick to check oil level in an engine. 

  • To perform (a bow or curtsey) by inclining the body. 

  • To engage as a pledge; to mortgage. 

  • To lower the body by bending the knees while keeping the body in an upright position, as in movement to the rhythm of music. 

  • To leave. 

  • To wet, as if by immersing; to moisten. 

  • To consume snuff by placing a pinch behind the lip or under the tongue so that the active chemical constituents of the snuff may be absorbed into the system for their narcotic effect. 

  • To lower a light's beam. 

  • To plunge or engage thoroughly in any affair. 

  • (of a value or rate) To decrease slightly. 

dipper

noun
  • Any snack food intended to be dipped in sauce. 

  • A Baptist or Dunker. 

  • A person employed in a tin plate works to coat steel plates in molten tin by dipping them. 

  • The control in a vehicle that switches between high-beam and low-beam (i.e. dips the lights), especially when used to signal other vehicles. 

  • A cup-shaped vessel with a long handle, for dipping into and ladling out liquids; a ladle or scoop. 

  • Any of various small passerine birds of the genus Cinclus that live near fast-flowing streams and feed along the bottom. 

  • A pickpocket. 

  • One who, or that which, dips (immerses something, or itself, into a liquid). 

  • A person employed to assist a bather in and out of the sea. 

How often have the words dip and dipper occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )