taper1
[tey-per]
- to become smaller or thinner toward one end.
- to grow gradually lean.
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- to make gradually smaller toward one end.
- to reduce gradually.
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- gradual diminution of width or thickness in an elongated object.
- gradual decrease of force, capacity, etc.
- anything having a tapering form, as a spire or obelisk.
- a candle, especially a very slender one.
- a long wick coated with wax, tallow, or the like, as for use in lighting candles or gas.
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- taper off,
- to become gradually more slender toward one end.
- to cease by degrees; decrease; diminish: The storm is beginning to taper off now. I haven't stopped smoking entirely, but I'm tapering off to three cigarettes a day.
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Origin of taper1
before 900; Middle English: wax candle, Old English, variant of tapur, dissimilated variant of *papur paper
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tapering
Contemporary Examples
She would never have used the “T” word, “tapering,” because unemployment remains unconcionably high.
In June, Bernanke had said that the tapering could start only once gains in the labor market seemed persistent and safe.
If interest rates jump in response to Fed tapering, whoever chairs the Fed will slow or suspend it.
The tapering of certain letters indicates the laudable trait of tact.
Historical Examples
The stem is quite short, tapering downward, dark green, scaly.
The Mushroom, Edible and OtherwiseM. E. Hard
In the plant on the right is shown the tapering stem from the base to the apex.
The Mushroom, Edible and OtherwiseM. E. Hard
The stem is inflated, stuffed, rather long, tapering downward.
The Mushroom, Edible and OtherwiseM. E. Hard
From this rises a tapering shaft of about twenty-eight feet.
Clusters small, slender, tapering, usually single-shouldered.
Manual of American Grape-GrowingU. P. Hedrick
taper
- to become or cause to become narrower towards one endthe spire tapers to a point
- (often foll by off) to become or cause to become smaller or less significant
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- a thin candle
- a thin wooden or waxed strip for transferring a flame; spill
- a narrowing
- engineering (in conical parts) the amount of variation in the diameter per unit of length
- any feeble source of light
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Word Origin
Old English tapor, probably from Latin papӯrus papyrus (from its use as a wick)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for tapering
taper
n.
Old English tapur, taper "candle," not found outside English, possibly a dissimilated borrowing from Latin papyrus (see papyrus), which was used in Medieval Latin and some Romance languages for "wick of a candle" (e.g. Italian papijo "wick"), because these often were made from the pith of papyrus. Cf. also German kerze "candle," from Old High German charza, from Latin charta, from Greek khartes "papyrus, roll made from papyrus, wick made from pith of papyrus."
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taper
v.
"shoot up like a flame or spire," 1580s, from taper (n.). Sense of "gradually decrease in size, force, etc." first recorded c.1600. Related: Tapered; tapering.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper