DIVE-DAPPER:

Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis, Grèbe castagneux.

1 occurrence

• VEN 86 Like a dive-dapper peering through a wave,

Dive-dapper was another name for the dabchick, or Little Grebe. It must have been less common between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries owing to the colder climate.

This is another simile that pertains to movement, and this description of the way the little grebe pops up and down in the water is very evocative:

Upon this promise did he raise his chin,

Like a dive-dapper peering through a wave,

Who being look'd on, ducks as quickly in

(VEN 85-7)

This is a very apt simile, which has no proverbial root, and which could derive from Shakespeare's own experience and observations.