dip

dip your pen in gall write unpleasantly or spitefully.

☞ Gall is another word for bile, the bitter secretion of the liver; it is used in many places in the Bible as a metaphor for bitterness or affliction. See also wormwood and gall atwormwood.

dip your toe into something begin to do or test something cautiously.

☞ The image here is of putting your toe briefly into water in order to check the temperature.

dip your wick: seewick.