What is "to dip the colors"

Dip \Dip\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dippedor Dipt (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Dipping.] [OE. dippen, duppen, AS. dyppan; akin to Dan. dyppe, Sw. doppa, and to AS. d?pan to baptize, OS. d?pian, D. doopen, G. taufen, Sw. d["o]pa, Goth. daupjan, Lith. dubus deep, hollow, OSlav. dupl? hollow, and to E. dive. Cf. Deep, Dive.]

1. To plunge or immerse; especially, to put for a moment into a liquid; to insert into a fluid and withdraw again.

   The priest shall dip his finger in the blood.
   --Lev. iv. 6.

   [Wat'ry fowl] now dip their pinions in the briny deep.
   --Pope.

   While the prime swallow dips his wing.
   --Tennyson.

2. To immerse for baptism; to baptize by immersion.
   --Book of Common Prayer. Fuller.

3. To wet, as if by immersing; to moisten. [Poetic]

   A cold shuddering dew Dips me all o'er.
   --Milton.

4. To plunge or engage thoroughly in any affair.

   He was . . . dipt in the rebellion of the Commons.
   --Dryden.

5. To take out, by dipping a dipper, ladle, or other receptacle, into a fluid and removing a part; -- often with out; as, to dip water from a boiler; to dip out water.

6. To engage as a pledge; to mortgage. [Obs.]

   Live on the use and never dip thy lands.
   --Dryden.

   Dipped candle, a candle made by repeatedly dipping a wick in melted tallow.

   To dip snuff, to take snuff by rubbing it on the gums and teeth. [Southern U. S.]

   To dip the colors (Naut.), to lower the colors and return them to place; -- a form of naval salute.