dipper

American  

[dip-er] / ˈdɪp ər /

noun

dippers plural

1. a person or thing that dips.

2. a cuplike container with a long handle, used for dipping liquids.

3. (initial capital letter)

   1. Big Dipper.

   2. Little Dipper.

4. Also called water ouzel.  Ornithology. any small, stocky diving bird of the family Cinclidae, related to the thrushes, especially Cinclus aquaticus of Europe and C. mexicanus of western North America, having dense, oilyplumage and frequenting rapid streams and rivers.

5. South Midland and Southern U.S. a person who uses snuff.

---

dipper British  

/ ˈdɪpə /

noun

1. a ladle used for dipping

2. Also called: water ouzel.  any aquatic songbird of the genus Cinclus and family Cinclidae, esp C. cinclus. They inhabit fast-flowing streams and resemble large wrens

3. a slang word for pickpocket

4. a person or thing that dips, such as the mechanism for directing car headlights downwards

5. a small metal cup clipped onto a painter's palette for holding diluent or medium

6. archaic an Anabaptist

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• dippers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of dipper

1350–1400; Middle English: diving bird; see dip ¹, -er ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dipper dippers

Or the dipper, a little bird Norwegians call “the Fossekall, the ‘Call of the waterfall,’” that once gave Mr. Macfarlane a change of mood.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

Birds including the curlew, nightjar, dipper, lesser black-backed gull and red grouse are also named.

From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026

Some Native American tribes believe the cup of the dipper represents a bear and the stars in the handle represent warriors who pursue it.

From National Geographic ● Aug. 23, 2023

Cresswell almost dislocates his standing ankle, spinning a dipper over the near side of the wall, just under the bar, and into the vicinity of the top corner!

From The Guardian ● Apr. 3, 2022

I spilled the dipper over the top of my head, shivering as the cold water trickled down my back.

From "Fever 1793" by Laurie Halse Anderson

We ended our tour at Hallam Lake, admiring the fortitude of American dippers, bathing in a snow-banked stream.

From New York Times ● Dec. 3, 2022

As for the dippers, the sky’s the limit.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 18, 2022

She began taking photos of Welsh landscapes and wildlife, such as Skomer's puffins, and released a photography book about dippers on the River Ogmore.

From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2022

Serve with baked pita chips or your dippers of choice.

From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2022

Worsley, Crean, Vincent, McCarthy, and McNeish frantically pumped and bailed with anything they could find—the cook pot, dippers, their hands—anything that would get the water out of the boat.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong