Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a dip-candle; a tallow-chandler.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions .
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1834		in Flash Chaunter 27: [song title] Dip, The Tallow Chandler.
1858		‘Shadow’ Midnight Scenes 101: The modest rays of a ‘farthing dip’.
1860		R.S. Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 45: ‘Candles! [...] is then the cry [and] our visitors are thrown on Baccoman’s scanty stock of dips.
1880		‘’Arry’s Christmas in the Country’ in Punch 25 Dec. in P. Marks (2006) 30: Tip me my ‘dip,’ and I’ll toddle.
1888		H. King Savage London 140: Mrs. Doo [...] departed leaving the dip in a black bottle on the table. [Ibid.] 145: The light of a farthing dip did not admit of any observation of a change of colour.

2. foods that are dipped or have something dipped into them.

3. (also dippy, (Und.) a pickpocket; also attrib.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1895		Whitstable Times 16 July 5/3: He told them it was a ‘mug’s game’ for dips to work on their own .
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 387: The person flagged seldom knows what has taken place, and every day in city streets people are thus favoured by gracious ‘dips,’ or pickpockets.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 85: This young woman was a ‘dip’; she could abstract the contents of a wallet, replace it, minus the bills, while one waited, conversing brightly.
1908		A. Stringer Under Groove 13: Here was an old and experienced dip and box man, an airy-handed chevalier d'industrie, an ex-yegg.
1914		Ogden Standard (UT) 7 Mar. 12/2: Hundreds of the ‘dip’ family are able to pose as reputable and respectable citizens.
1916		J. Lait ‘Canada Kid’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 162: The Canada Kid was a ‘dip’ of parts and of class.
1920		C. Sandburg ‘Cahoots’ in Smoke and Steel 45: Ain’t it fifty-fifty all down the line, / Petemen, dips, boosters, stick-ups and guns — what’s to hinder?
1920		F. Williams Hop-Heads 76: Penny Meade is one of the famous ‘dips’ (pick-pockets) of the New York underworld.
1927		C. Drew ‘Grafter and Goose’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Aug. n.p.: ‘Long Alec! [...] The finest dip in Sydney’.
1929		R.E. Howard ‘Pit of the Serpent’ Fight Stories July 🌐 I [...] recognized a pickpocket I used to know [...] ‘This house used to be owned by a crazy Spaniard with more mazuma than brains,’ said the dip.
1932		Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: The pick-pocket is more commonly known as a ‘Dip’ or ‘Hook’ and stands at the head of the petty thieving class.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks n.p.: Dip: Pickpocket.
1939		W. Winchell On Broadway 22 June [synd. col.] A dip, hired for the job, lifted the pass from the messenger’s pocket.
1940		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 27 July 20: ‘I’m hottern a dippy, tryin’ to knock off these chippies’.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 264: ‘So you’re a dip.’ He ruefully places his possessions in his pocket. [...] It was humiliating to have his pocket picked.
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 247: I have never known an affluent pickpocket. [...] The average dip is penny ante.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 16: He was a dip, a fair pickpocket. He used to work the bus stops and did well at it.
1969		C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 179: Take your hands off me, you mother-raping dip! [...] I’m on to that pickpocket shit!
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 12: What was one more cheque-fraudsman, hoister, dip, or whatever?
1982		L.A. Times 8 Mar. n.p.: Sam is not like the sleazy dunnigans who work toilets, or the dips who grift with squealers.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 51: There was the [...] a slick local dip and coat-tugger named George ‘Georgie Boy’ Griffin and two sheilas.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 123: Ringers burglars teefs filches dips and deedees.
2023		M. Herron Secret Hours 224: ‘You know why they call diplomats “dips”? [...] Because they’re all pickpockets. Steal your name, nick your boyfriend, rob you blind’.

4. (US/UK Und., also the dip) an act of pickpocketing.

1827		J. Wight More Mornings in Bow St. 44: Whateley [...] was seen to make seven unsuccessful dips into seven distinct pockets at Epsom races.
1860		R. Nicholson Rogue’s Progress (1966) 16: He never could be persuaded personally to go to the ‘dip’, not even on a civic show day, when such things were considered gifts.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 9/2: As it was, he was obliged to depend upon a ‘trick’ or two on market days, or a chance ‘dip’ in the auction stores.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 28 Sept. n.p.: Allan Taylor’s ‘moll’ and Tommy McIntyre [...] were ‘pinched’ for the ‘dip’ week before last.
1883		Aberdeen Eve. Exp. 23 Oct. 2/2: I once got £573 in one dip [...] out of a gentleman’s pocket.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 81: If you’ll stand for the dip.
1914		J. McCree ‘Types’ Variety Stage Eng. Plays 🌐 Then I blew the kale and trailed the boob to make another dip.
1925		Black Mask Aug. III 99: His ‘dip’ into the mailbag had been a real prize package after all.
1996		K. Lette Mad Cows 16: What’s the name of your gang leader? How many dips are you doing a day?
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 3: Dips, snatches, cameras, purses, the odd Barbour jacket.

5. (US Und.) a burglary.

1886

‘Lady Kate, the Dashing Female Detective’ in Roberts et al. Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detectives (1990) 33/2: ‘A bad “dip in” for the lads, that’ [...] The expression ‘a bad dip in,’ meant the attempted burglary had turned out a disastrous failure.

6. (US) a hat.

1906		C. M’Govern Sarjint Larry an’ Frinds 64: The fun he and his butty had last Fourth of July in Arizona with some Greaser feller who wouldn’t take off his ‘dip’ when he passed the Stars and Stripes.
1912		H.A. White ‘A Word-List From Central New York’ in DN III:viii 567: dip, n. Derby or stiff hat.
1923		Indiana Messenger 29 Mar. 2/2: Mr. Lewis certainly meant to have his character exclaim that he would tip his hat [...] He should have said, ‘I tip my kelly – or lid – or dip – to him.’.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

7. (UK und.) in the context of pickpocketing, a hand.

1928

Framlingham Wkly News 8 Dec. 3/7: Thieves’ Dialect [...] A pickpocket’s hands are his ‘daddlers’ or ‘dips’.

8. (UK und.) a bribe.

1999

J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] ‘Well, it got to be he took a dip innit?’ ‘He took a dip? He got big pockets?’.

9. (US black) a pocket.

2008

G. Pelecanos Way Home (2009) 270: What about a shoulder rig for this one? I can’t be putting this monster down in my dip.